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M0LL1E FANCHER, 



THE BROOKLYN ENIGMA. 



An Authentic Statement of Facts 



IN THE 



Life of Mary J. Fancher, 



The Psychological Marvel of the 
Nineteenth Century. 



Unimpeachable Testimony of Many Witnesses. 






Ot WAS H 



.«*<2 



By ABRAM H. DAILEY. 



BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
18Q4. 



k, 



*** 



/ 



^p 1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, 

BY ABRAM H. DAILEY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C, U. S. A. 



Press of Eagle Book Printing Dept, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



TPON the death of Jesus, his apostles and faithful 
disciples boldly proclaimed the doctrine of Salva- 
tion by repentence and good deeds. Regarding truth as 
divine, and its revelation and promulgation for man's 
ultimate good, the author takes great pleasure in dedicat- 
ing this book, its lessons and teachings, to the memory of 
the noble men and women who in all ages have boldly 
proclaimed their convictions of the truth, regardless of 
consequences to themselves. 

A. H. D. 



iii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction, causes leading to writing the facts of Miss Fan- 
Cher's case. Folly of denying established facts. Relations of soul 
to mind and body. 

CHAPTER II. 

Of the early life of Miss Fancher. Her parents. Premonitions 
of her mother of misfortunes to Mollie. Miss Susan E. Crosby. 

CHAPTER III. 

Leaves school. Adventurous horseback ride. A vicious horse. 
A runaway. Is thrown and injured. Is engaged to be married. 
Is thrown from car and seriously injured. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Spinal injury. Great sufferings. Failing eyesight. Limbs con- 
tract. Lung trouble. Supposed to be dying. Her minister sum- 
moned. ' ' Nearer My God to Thee. ' Her first trance. Pro- 
nounced dead. Physicians puzzled. Loses sight and hearing. 
Sees without use of her eyes. 

CHAPTER V. 

Records from diary of Miss Crosby. Loses use of her limbs. 
Contortions of her body. Fasts. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Continuation of Miss Crosby's Records, Limbs in a three-twist. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Extracts from Miss Crosby's Records. Astounding description 
of Miss Fancher's condition. Goes into a trance and visits her 
mother in Heaven. 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The trance condition. What it is. Scriptures cited, Events 
of nine years lost from memory. 

CHAPTER IX. 
"Whereas I was blind I now see." Work done during nine 
years of which Miss Fancher has no recollection. Strange awak- 
ening after the long trance. Does not know her acquaintances. 
Sextuple consciousness. Five different personalities in one self. 

CHAPTER X. 

Interesting facts from the lips of Miss Fancher. Geo. F. Sar- 
gent's experience with Miss Fancher and her several personalities. 

CHAPTER XL 
" The forms I see are intangible ; I cannot touch them. They 
are here but I cannot press them to my bosom." Miss Fancher 
describes what she sees. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Personal interview with Miss Fancher's different personalities 
by the Author. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Statement of Mr. Geo. F. Sargent. " Light amid darkness." 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Clairvoyance. Statement of Experiences with Miss Fancher 
by Mrs. Thos. S. Townsend. Proposal from Mr. P. T. Barnum. 

CHAPTER XV. 
Miss Fancher's clairvoyant powers. Statements at Hon. H. 
D. Sisson and Mr. E. T. Blodgett. Mr. J. T. Bishop is seen 40 
miles distant. Statements of friends. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Testimony of the Press. Brookly?i Daily Eagle makes her 
case public. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Miss Fancher assailed by Drs. Hammond and Beard. Mr. Epes 
Sargent makes a scathing answer to their assaults in the New York 
Sun. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Mr. Epes Sargent's letter and correspondence with Miss Fan- 
cier. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Letter of Prof. Charles E. West, publishedin 1878. Prof. Henry 
M. Parkhurst makes a crucial test. Mind reading. 

CHAPTER XX. 
' " Dead and yet alive." "Clap-trap of Clairvoyance." Rev. Dr. 
Duryea's theory. Prof. West relates some of his experience 
with Miss Fancher. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Written statements of Miss Fancher's physicians, Drs. S. Fleet 
Speir and Robert Ormiston. The eye. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Treats of Miss Fancher's abnormal powers. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Clairvoyance. Soul seeing. Miss Fancher describes how she 
see and visits distant places. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
A Pen Picture by Miss S. C. Clark. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Mollie Fancher, the woman. Her home life. The Geo. F- 
Sargent Co. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
As A Neighbor, by Will Carleton. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Events transpiring in the interim of writing this book. Miss 
Fancher's Case before the Psychical Congress in 1893. Prof. 
Elliot Coues. Death of Miss Fancher's father. Conclusion. 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Adventure, love of 13 

Alcohol as a remedy 22 

Arm, loss of use of 37, 57 

Accidents to Mollie Fancher 16 

Awaking unconscious of events of nine preceding years 66, 67 

Brooklyn Heights Seminary 6 

Beattie, Dr., Attends Miss Fancher 15 

Baker, Dr., " " 18 

Ball, " " " 18 

Belden, " " " 18 

Blindness of Miss Fancher 25, 26 

Blodgett, Mr. E. T 52 

Barnum, Mr. P. T., proposes to engage Miss Fancher as a 

Public Attraction 112-127 

Blossom, Herbert, Statement of 119-122 

Blossom, Mrs. Emily, Statement of 1 1 S 

Braislin, Rev. Dr. Edward, Statement of 126 

Bishop, Mr. J. T., is seen by Miss Fancher 40 miles distant. . 130 

" " " Correspondence of 132 

Beard, Dr. Geo. M., deductive reasoning answered 147 

Benson, Geo. W., amazed at Miss F.'s^power 201 

Bell, Clark, Esq., comments upon the case of Miss F 256 

Crosby, Elizabeth, mother of Mollie Fancher 6 

" Susan E. , Aunt of Mollie Fancher 6 

" " her promise to the mother of Mollie 7 

Sketch of life of and her sacrifices 7-10 

Corn well, Miss Fancher's visit to 15 

Car accident to Miss Fancher 16 

Contracting of limbs 18 

Council of physicians 18 

Contortions described 20, 38, 39, 42, 50 

Cataleptic condition 22 

Cold water and ice applications 23, 24 



X INDEX. 

Page. 

Clairvoyance 28, 104, 105, 108, 210 

Contraction of stomach and neck 37 

Chloroform administered 46 

Clairaudience of Miss Fancher in 

" Clap-trap " of clairvoyance 184, 228 

Clairvoyance of the seers and prophets 228, etc. 

Clark, Miss S. C, A pen picture of Miss Fancher by 234 

Carleton, Will, writes of Mollie Fancher to a friend 253 

Conclusion 256 

Dailey ; Mr. A. H. Dailey corroborates statements 129 

Death of Miss Fancher's mother. 8 

Dead ; Miss Fancher pronounced so by physicians 20 

Dead and alive 184 

Dying, Miss Fancher supposed to be 19 

Duryea, Rev. Dr. Joseph T., suggests a theory 201 

Eagle, Brooklyn Daily, article on Miss Fancher 13 8 

Electric battery as a remed}'- 22 

Evans, Miss, the first teacher of Miss Fancher 6 

Embroidery by Miss Fancher when blind 6x 

Eyesight first affected 16-1S 

Excitement, effects of 192 

Eye discribed 217 

Fancher, Mary J. , birth and early life of 6 

- James E., father of Mollie 6 

Mrs. Elizabeth, mother of Mollie 6 

James E., brother of Mollie, death of 6 

Mollie's illness. She leaves school 11 

personal appearance n 

horseback riding 11 

on a vicious horse 12 

adventurous ride 13 

makes an unexpected call. Her courage. . 13 

her second runaway 14 

" her coolness in danger 14 

' "is thrown from her horse and injured 15, 16 

is thrown from a car and dragged in the 

street 16 

Fingers, Miss F. loses use of 27 



INDEX. XI 

Page. 

Fracture of ribs 30 

Fainting spells 3° 

Fasting, seven weeks without food 3.-; 

Food from an unknown source 5 1 

Horseback riding for health 11 

Horse runs ; is vicious 12, 13 

Horse throws Miss Fancher 15 

Hemorrhages 16 

Head is shaved and blistered . . 22 

Horse-shoe magnet as a remedy 23 

Hearing, loss of 25 

Hands close 37 

Heart action 58 

Harley, Jos. F., Statement by 124 

Hempstreet, Col Wm., writes concerning Miss F 138 

' ' Idol, " Mollie Fancher No. 2 74 

Insensibility to pain 22 

Intuition 9 

Jones, Howard S., Statement by. 125 

Kingman, Wm., Statement by 132 

Kossuth's sister, Miss F. refuses to see her 209 

Le Plongeon, Alice D., Statement by 122 

Leigh, Dr. Edwin, corroborated Prof. Parkhurst 182 

Lockjaw, Miss Fancher Afflicted with 32 

Lung, Miss Fancher's loss of use of 18, 19 

McFail, Dr., called 24 

Mollie Fancher's five personalities named 70, 71 

Magnetic currents of the earth, effect on Miss F 22, 23 

Mind, its relation to the soul 4 

Moore, Rev. David 19 

Medical Treatment of Miss Fancher 22-25 

Mind-reading in its application to the case of Miss F 55, 177, 180 

" Nearer My God to Thee " sung at her bedside 19 

Nine years, Arm in one position 57 

" " as in a sleep of an hour 65, 67 



Xll INDEX. 

Page. 
Ormiston, Dr. Robert 185, 188, 212 

Parkhurst, Prof. Henry M., his crucial test 177, etc. 

Premonitions of the mother of Mollie Fancher 7 

of Miss Susan E. Crosby 9-14, 17 

Paralysis of arm 18 

Parker, Dr. Willard 18 

Physicians, Treatment of Miss Fancher by 18, 21, 25 

Phenomenal powers of Miss F. not constant 51, 52 

• ' Pearl " Mollie Fancher No. 4 , 78 

" writes " Light Amid Darkness." 106 

Peter, St., Teachings of cited • no 

Psychical Congress receives report of Miss Fancher's case. . . 256 

Press, Articles in, regarding Miss F 138-152 

Phenomenal powers described 47 

Rigidity of Miss F. 's body and limbs 22 

Records of Miss Crosby of Miss Fancher's condition -9-48 

" Rosebud," Mollie Fancher, No. 3 74 

Ruby, Mollie Fancher. No. 5 79 

Speir, Dr. S. Fleet, called , 24 

" Statement of Miss Fancher's case, 

185-188, 212 

" warned that he was to be robbed 214 

" Dr. Robert 64 

" Second-sight" of Miss Fancher 28, 192, 50 

Spirits, sees spirits of the departed 50, 68, 69, 76, 77, 232 

Senses, loss of 27 

Sleep, she never sleeps 59 

Soul, what is it ? 3 

Spinal trouble 18 

Spasms, first appearance of 19 

' ' alternate with trances 20 

' ' efforts to prevent 21, 25 

Sees friends, long distances away from her 52, 53 

Sisson, Hon. H. D., is seen when she is in a trance 52-127 

Sherk, Louis, Statement by 56-136 

Scriptural quotations as to trance 59, 63 

Spiritualism, Miss F. disclaims all knowledge of 67 

" Sunbeam," Mollie Fancher No. 1 74 



indkx. xi li 

Page. 

Sargent, Mr. Geo. F., Statement by 94 

Sargent, Mr. Epes, in defense of Miss Fancher 146 

Simmons, Mr. Jeffrey, Statement by 132 

Swedenborg's clairvoyance no 

Trance, Miss F.'s first 16, 19 

while in, sees and converses with her mother in 

Heaven 50 

Trance explained 59 

Transfiguration « 77 

Throat, Miss F.'s is paralyzed 27 

Thunder, Suffering from the effects of. 38 

Townsend, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas S 53-108 

Tests of Miss Fancher's powers 54 

The Geo. F. Sargent Co 249 

" Who and what am I ? " 66 

West, Prof. Charles E ' 6 

Letter by in 1S78 169 

Anecdotes by 204 

Work done by Miss F. during nine years 64 

Woman, Mollie Fancher the woman 240 



MOLLIE FANCHER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER I, 



The task I have undertaken is self-imposed, and might 
well have been committed to abler writers. The fear that 
it might be left undone until too late to be completed in 
the lifetime of Miss Fancher has impelled me to the 
work, hoping that her revising hand will make any needed 
corrections. All of the facts of her life which might in- 
struct, and certainly would be of interest, can not be 
gathered or collated. They have never been written, 
and many of those to whom they were known have gone 
to that realm where Miss Fancher has so long and earn- 
estly desired.to follow, that her long continued sufferings 
which she has so patiently endured, might come to an end. 
But, happily, some of those who have been witnesses of 
this lady's sufferings through portions of the long years 
during which they have continued, and who have observed 
some of the strange things which are herein related, con- 
sidered them worthy of note, and from time to time made 
careful records of what they observed, and it is largely 
by the aid of these writings that I have been able to put 
together what is here recorded. These sketches cover a 
period of over twenty-seven years of her life, some of 
which were made by her deceased aunt, of whose labors, 
devotion and self-sacrifice in the interest of her afflicted 
niece, suitable mention will be made. 

I here take occasion to express my obligations to 
the many friends of Miss Fancher for the services which 



2 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

they have so kindly rendered in this undertaking, without 
the aid of whom much which will be found of great in- 
terest would probably never be preserved, and at least 
would not be put in suitable form in connection with her 
life, to make the narrative in any degree complete. The 
public will certainly be interested in acquiring a reliable 
history of the case of this remarkable lady, about whom 
so much has been written and spoken, some truthfully, 
and some that is cruelly false. It is due to Miss Fancher 
that the story of her life should be written while she is 
here to aid in the work, to correct any errors and supply 
any omissions. Through the story of her life, new les- 
sons will be learned of the strange and mystic relations 
of mind and soul to the houses we live in — these bodies of 
ours. What it can yield in the accumulation of knowledge 
upon subjects imperfectly understood, it is her desire, by 
this book, to place within the easy reach of all. A thou- 
sand times during the long years that she has been con- 
fined to her bed, subject to tortures, from the very con- 
templation of which the mind will naturally recoil, she 
has said it is impossible to understand why she should 
be kept here to endure such sufferings, being of no com- 
fort to her friends, but an object of constant care and 
solicitude. Her prayers for deliverance have not been 
answered, but to use her own expression, " I have been 
pushed back when I have struggled for release, and been 
told that I must wait, to bear it a little longer — a little 
longer, and this has been going on for over twenty-eight 
years, and will it ever end?" She has been answered 
times without number, that her life was prolonged for 
some wise purpose, and that in the end the reason would 
be made manifest. It would seem that if the facts of her 
case, which are so strong and startling, are for the instruc- 
tion and enlightenment of humanity, and if lessons in 
human life are to be learned at such a cost of pain and 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 3 

anguish — such a sacrifice of the choicest privileges vouch- 
safed to most of us, and if her sufferings are being pro- 
longed to the end that the facts may be recorded, humanity, 
at least, would dictate that the work be done as speedily 
as possible. 

It is my purpose to state the facts clearly, concisely, 
and without unnecessary verbiage ; and whatever com- 
ments may be made, will be in such form as to leave the 
reader free to understand the history of her sickness, and 
the strange things which she has done and is constantly 
doing, so that he may form his own conclusions, irrespect- 
ive of the opinion of others. 

I have known Miss Fancher personally for twelve 
years, and have witnessed some of the strange things here 
recorded. I have been exceedingly careful to obtain the 
testimony of the most reliable persons, and in the course 
of the work copious reference will be made to the same, 
so that the curious and the doubting, the skeptical and 
the painstaking may know where to inquire for reliable 
information, touching the important features of her case. 

Unquestionably every age is remarkable to the people 
of its time ; but if the accumulated histories of men and 
nations faithfully record the past, then we can truthfully 
say we are living in the most remarkable era of human 
existence. Wise men will be wiser to no longer dispute 
that which is vouched for as being true by others possess- 
ing reason and judgment, simply because it may be con- 
trary to their own observations and experiences. There 
is very little as a matter of fact, in the great domain of 
nature, that we actually understand. To the things that 
are most common — that we witness every day, we seldom 
give thought. Why we think, and how we think, involves 
mysterious operations of our minds imperfectly under- 
stood in any respect. Who has been able to tell us what 
the soul is, where it is, and how it maintains its relations 



4 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

to the body ? In asking this, I beg the question as to the 
existence of the soul, and assume that which many dispute, 
to wit, that there is a soul, which comprises a part of the 
being of man. Who has been able to tell us what is the 
mind, and what is its relation to the soul ? Do they exist 
conjointly, or are they separate forces and powers, but 
having relations to each other ? Is the soul that upon 
which the mind builds from birth through all life, accumu- 
lating knowledge, to be severed and separated from it at 
the hour of death, or through any untoward occurrence 
or affliction affecting the brain ? Has the soul a particular 
place where it abides, until released or forced out by some 
destructive event, or disarrangement of the mechanism 
so strangely placed and operating within? If so, who has 
discovered it, and who has answered these questions ? 
The story of the life of Mollie Fancher cannot fail to 
cause speculations and strange thoughts in the minds of 
all thinking persons upon these and kindred subjects. 
Those who have sought to discover the existence of a 
something answering to the soul, and have found nothing 
satisfying, will be interested in this work, and if reason- 
able and fair with themselves and with Miss Fancher, may 
profit in its perusal. Probably there has never been a 
case so prominently before the public as that of the sub- 
ject of this book ; and to many of its prominent features 
the testimony of thousands of reliable persons could be 
obtained. Sufficient will be here appended to satisfy any 
reasonable person. 

That all will believe in the truthfulness of every state- 
ment, is not to be expected. Skeptical people are very 
apt to erroneously conclude that it is very essential to the 
rest of the world, that they should be permitted to examine 
Miss Fancher for themselves, and that their testimony 
would be accepted by the rest of mankind as true. The 
reader will at once see that such a privilege cannot be 



THE LIFE OF MOLUE FANCttEE. 5 

accorded to all, and if the accumulated testimony here- 
with presented, is deemed insufficient by some to satisfy 
them of its truthfulness, it is probable that additional 
proof would not affect the result. 

It is not my purpose to here advance theories of my 
own. The facts must stand by themselves for the unbiased 
judgment of the reader. Where comment is made, it will 
be for the purpose of establishing in the mind of the 
reader the truthfulness of the narrative, or explaining its 
character, or for comparing some of its features with 
similar phenomena occurring in ancient or modern times. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER II. 

Mary J. Fancher, the subject of this book, was born on 
the 16th day of August, 1848, at Attleboro, Massachussets, 
U. S. A. She is the eldest of five children born of the 
marriage of James E. Fancher and Elizabeth Crosby. Her 
parents moved to Brooklyn, New York, when Mollie, as 
she has always been called, was but two years of age. 
Her mother died several years afterwards. Her father, a 
highly respectable man, and her brother James E. Fancher, 
Jr., are still living.* Her sister Elizabeth died ten years 
ago. She commenced going to a private school kept by a 
Miss Evans when quite young. Being an apt scholar, 
when between the ages of eleven and twelve years she 
was able to enter the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, then 
under the charge of Professor Charles E. West, where she 
remained until sixteen, and she was compelled to leave, 
when within a few weeks of graduating, in consequence of 
ill health. A few months after the decease of her mother, 
Miss Fancher was taken in charge by Miss Susan E. 
Crosby, her mother's sister, who remained with her almost 
constantly up to the time of her decease. 

The mother of Mollie Fancher was a lady of much 
character and refinement, and during the protracted ill- 
ness, which resulted in her death, she seemed to look out 
into the future and discern shadows over the life of her 
eldest daughter, who was always her favorite child. Her 
son was a frail infant, with little chance of living more 
than a few months at best, and, realizing that her life was 
fast drawing to a close, she called to her side her sister, 
Miss Crosby, then a young and accomplished lady, and 
confided to her her forebodings regarding her much beloved 

* Since writing the above he died from a railroad accident. 



THE LIFE OF MOlLTE FANCHER. 7. 

Mollie. Speaking of Elizabeth she said, "Elizabeth will 
be able to take care of herself. But Mollie, I can see, is a 
child of sorrow, and will need your care, and I want you 
should make me one promise, and that is, if anything shall 
happen to her, that you will look after and care for her as 
your own daughter." 

As has been previously said, at this time, Susan E. 
Crosby was a beautiful, accomplished and refined young 
lady, and looked out upon life, as do most young ladies, as 
worth living for its bright hopes of future happiness. 
Whether she shared the apprehensions of her sister or not, 
as to the future of the young child so tenderly committed 
to her charge, at that time, may never be known. But 
looking upon the wan face of her sister, and letting the 
earnestness of her appeal reach her heart, she responded 
with that nobleness so characteristic of her, and so com- 
mendable in its sincerity, and gave the desired assurance, 
that when she was gone, Mollie should be to her as her 
own child ; a promise which thousands of persons know 
was faithfully kept, until she was finally forced to leave 
her charge through her own illness, and eventually to die, 
longing to clasp once more in her arms the form of her 
beloved niece, for whom she had sacrificed so much. 

A few words touching the life of this noble lady is not 
only due to her memory, but will be of interest to the 
reader. 

MISS SUSAN E. CROSBY: 

At the age of sixteen Miss Crosby made the acquaint- 
ance of a young and wealthy planter residing in the city 
of Mobile, Alabama. They became much attached to 
each other ; their acquaintance ripened into love and they 
were soon engaged to be married. The day was fixed, the 
trousseau prepared, her lover set sail to come North, and 
she looked anxiously forward to the hour when the vessel 



8 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

would arrive, when she would greet him at the landing. The 
vessel came ; she was waiting, but her lover had been 
stricken with yellow fever on his way, and had died ere 
the vessel had reached its destination. 

This sad affliction was the first great shadow cast over 
her own life ; and after recovering from the shock, her 
sister having died, she came to Brooklyn, and soon went 
into the house which Mr. Fancher had then built on the 
corner of Gates avenue, and what is known now as 
Downing street, where she became the head of the house- 
hold, and where Miss Fancher has ever since resided. 

Mr. Fancher, several years after the decease of his wife, 
married again, and consequently the entire care of Mollie 
devolved upon Miss Crosby. The attachment between 
aunt and niece soon became marked, and grew stronger as 
years rolled by, freighted with misfortunes and clouded 
with sorrows. All the care and attention that a mother 
could bestow upon her own offspring was unreservedly 
showered by Miss Crosby on her niece. Although a child 
of strong will and of great determination and firmness, 
Miss Mollie yielded a willing obedience to the gentle re- 
straint of her aunt, and expressions of endearment and 
affection were never wanting from one to the other. 

Such self-abnegation as Susan Crosby practiced is so rare, 
as to merit something more than passing mention. Often 
that which is regarded as a sacrifice, is robbed of its noble- 
ness by the discovery of a shade of selfishness. If oral prom- 
ises were sacredly kept, written obligations would be useless. 
Because they are not, lawyers thrive in drafting, and fat- 
ten in enforcing those which are broken. Had Miss 
Crosby not given her word, what her sense of duty would 
have impelled her to do, may not be positively asserted ; 
but the reader, I am sure, will agree with me in saying, 
that few persons would have made so great sacrifices as 
did she, that she mio;ht devote her entire life in minister- 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 9 

ing to the comfort of her niece. It would have been easy, 
and, perhaps, pardonable under the circumstances, to have 
kept to the letter and violated the spirit of her promise, 
when she found the forebodings of her sister were about 
to be realized. She observed the gathering clouds and 
the gloom of darkness, coming into the life of her young 
niece. Terrible as the affliction then was, its awful nature 
and long duration could not be suspected, unless by intui- 
tion she could sense the extent of the calamity. That 
she was intuitional, and felt the shadows of impending 
misfortunes, is clearly evinced by numerous incidents 
which have been noted in her own life. However we may 
feel the approach of events, in advance of their coming, 
we argue that we do not know they will come, and act upon 
the assumption that they will not ; and this in the main 
is correct, as fortunately the fears of the timid are not 
usually well grounded, and many persons mistake impres- 
sions which are merely worthless imaginings, for intuitions, 
which are immediate insights to outer conditions, that 
correctly portend what is to occur. 

The day of the first accident to Miss Fancher, Miss 
Crosby seemed impressed with some misfortune in advance 
of its coming, and the same was true a year later, when 
the girl was brought home unconscious from the effects of 
an injury, which ultimately produced the most appalling 
results. For some time previous, Miss Crosby had received 
the attention of a most worthy gentleman, for whom she 
formed a merited affection, and she had promised him her 
hand in marriage. Marriage is a relation to which most 
persons look forward with anticipations of culminating 
happiness, without which life would be barren of many of 
its natural pleasures. Woman naturally feels that there 
will come a time when she will share her fortunes with 
another, upon whom she will bestow her affections, and in 
return receive the love and protecting arm of a noble 



io The life of Mollie fAngher. 

husband. The relation of marriage may not lightly be 
entered into, beeause of its sacredness ; yet it is natural 
that it should be formed, and we shall some time learn more 
of its enduring nature. It was Miss Crosby's misfortune to 
have made two promises, both of which she felt she could 
not redeem, with justice to the man she had promised to 
marry, and at the same time keep the spirit of her promise 
to her deceased sister, whose child was now a helpless in- 
valid, hopelessly confined to her bed. The reader is left 
to conjecture how deep was the disappointment,- and how 
strong the sense of honor of this noble lady, in deciding 
the question, which she did for herself, without the in- 
fluence of anything but her own sense of duty. To leave 
to others the care of her niece to whom she was devotedly 
attached, who might not be to her always tender and kind, 
was what she would not do ; and to take into her married 
life such a burden to be shared by her husband she could 
not, even though he were willing. There was to her but 
one course, and that was to ask to be released from her 
promise of marriage, and keep that made with her sister. 
This being done, her preparations for marriage came to 
an end ; henceforth her thoughts and attention were be- 
stowed upon her niece. What were to be her wedding 
robes were laid aside ; some having never been worn, are 
yet in the possession of Miss Fancher. The evident affec- 
tion existing between these ladies was deep and enduring, 
and unto the end of her life no murmur of complaint 
escaped the lips of Miss Crosby. Expressions of endear- 
ment were ever on their lips from one to the other ; and 
much that forms this narrative is gathered from the w T rit- 
ings of Miss Crosby, as from time to time she noted down 
the strange developments of the most remarkable case in 
medical history. 



THE MM. <>!■ MOM, IK FANCriER. 

CHAPTER III. 
Miss Fancher's Adventurous Horseback Rides. 



At the time that Miss Fancher was about closing her 
studies at the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, she was a tall, 
slender and graceful young lady, a decided blonde, and a 
universal favorite among her schoolmates, teachers and 
friends. Her profuse light wavy hair reaching down over 
her shoulders, her exceedingly fair complexion, regular 
features, oval face, small and finely chiseled mouth, made 
her conspicuous wherever she went, and probably no 
young lady of her time was more widely known in the city 
than Mollie Fancher. She was ambitious, and possessed 
a commendable degree of pride to excel in her studies. 
She stood high in her class, and was soon expecting to 
graduate, when her teacher observed, as had many other 
friends, that she was in failing health, and that an imme- 
diate change in her course of life was essential to effect 
her recovery. Her trouble was pronounced nervous indi- 
gestion, her stomach rejecting most kinds of food ; she 
had wasted away and become weak, and was the subject 
of frequent fainting spells, which aroused alarm in the 
mind of her kind preceptor. 

Miss Fancher abandoned the Brooklyn Heights Semi- 
nary, with the intention of doing whatever might be 
deemed wisest, to most speedily effect her restoration to 
health. Her physician pronounced her trouble indiges- 
tion; and horseback riding was advised as just that kind 
of exercise which would likely produce beneficial results. 
She first went to a riding-school, then kept back of the 
Mansion House on Brooklyn Heights, and soon was a 
graceful and fearless equestrienne. As has been already 
said, few young ladies in Brooklyn were more widely 



12 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHEK. 

known than she, and hundreds knew Mollie Fancher by 
sight, who had not the pleasure of a personal acquaint- 
ance. Her skill in managing her horse and retaining her 
seat, as he trotted or galloped over uneven roads and 
roughly paved streets, commanded admiration, and she 
became quite noted as a graceful and fearless rider. 

Mr. J. J. Field, a friend of Miss Fancher's, residing 
near by, had just purchased a handsome pony horse of a 
Mr. Kerrigan, for his daughter, which he kept at the 
livery stable of a Mr. Lewis on Alclelphi street, corner of 
Fulton street. He had purchased the animal as a safe 
horse for his daughter, who was inexperienced as a rider; 
and, at Mr. Field's request, Miss Fancher took him from 
the stable and rode him around the city for exercise, 
without an intimation that he was not safe for a lady to 
ride; supposing he was used to female horsemanship. She 
had gone but a few blocks before the animal, which had 
really never been before mounted by a lady, suddenly 
started into a run, viciously turning his head and biting 
at her dress, which was fluttering in the wind, as he 
plunged through the streets, among vehicles of all sorts, 
disregarding every effort to hold him in. Weak as Miss 
Fancher was from her sickness, she realized that any 
efforts on her part to control him would be unavailing, 
and she coolly resigned herself to whatever fate there 
might be in store for her, determined to maintain her seat, 
however, at all hazards. 

Strangers will not know the streets and roads through 
which she was carried, nor the distance; their names are 
given for the information of many persons residing in the 
vicinity, who are familiar with the location. It may be 
stated that, among others, he ran through Classon avenue 
to Flushing avenue, and through Flushing avenue, along 
the Navy Yard, until he came to Clinton avenue, when he 
turned again in the direction of Fulton street. He con- 




MOLLIE FANCHER WHEN SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 3 

turned at a break neck pace, until he seemed to discover 
that he was in a familiar location, when he halted in front 
of a handsome wooden house, and mounting the sidewalk, 
opened the gate with one of his fore-feet, giving it a back- 
ward push with one of his hind feet, to prevent its closing 
upon him, and deliberately proceeded up the walk to the 
steps of the piazza, mounted it, and struck the floor heavily 
with his foot three times, waiting as if he expected to be in- 
vited in. All efforts of Miss Fancher to coax or drive him 
away were fruitless, and she remained seated, awaiting de- 
velopments, wondering what next was to come. Soon the 
door opened, and a young gentleman appeared, whom the 
horse instantly recognized by a whinny of joy, as if he had 
met an old friend. Miss Fancher proceeded to explain 
how she came to be an intruder, and besought the gentle- 
man's assistance to lead the animal down into the street. 
The gentleman was Mr. Kerrigan, who was astonished, as 
might be supposed, at so unexpected a visit from a strange 
young lady, and at once proceeded to inform Miss Fan- 
cher that he had formerly owned the animal, which had 
been taught tricks and to open gates, and do many 
unusual things for a horse ; and that he had never been 
ridden by a lady, and was, in his opinion, quite an unsafe 
animal for her use. He led him down into the street, and 
away from the house, and she succeeded in returning him 
to the stable without further incident or accident. 

Many of the readers of these pages will wonder that 
Miss Fancher should desire — even dare — to venture 
another experiment with this horse. Those who know 
her best will wonder least. Few women have greater 
courage than she ; few are more cool and collected in 
times of peril. The love of venture rises often to the 
degree of passion, and there are few persons who, when 
dangers and perils are successfully passed, do not enjoy 
the recollection of what, at the time, caused feelings of 



14 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

terror or alarm. We are invariably taking chances in life 
which we should not ; frequently blame in others what we 
are practicing ourselves. Really, what would our lives )e 
without excitement? The savage will venture all his 
worldly possessions on a horse-race, and people who think 
they are civilized are doing the same thing. The habit of 
reading stories of fiction is almost universal, and comes 
from an innate love, which is soon developed into a 
passion, for thrilling, exciting accounts of ventures and 
anomalous occurrences, which the reader knows, but 
forgets, has no foundation — in fact, are only the produc- 
tions of the brain of the novelist. 

It was not unnatural that, having ridden the horse so 
far, and at such a speed, she should think that she was 
mistress, when once seated in her saddle on his back, with 
bridle in hand, so far as safety was concerned. Her 
recollections of the exciting ride were pleasing, and she 
thought she would probably become familiar to him, and 
he, perhaps, as much attached to her as to his former 
owner. Unfortunately the brute was not quite gallant 
enough to appreciate his fair rider, and waited the dis- 
covery of an opportune moment, when she would be 
unguarded, to unseat her. She had continued to ride him 
without serious danger for some days. Upon one occa- 
sion, when he thought the exercise too lengthy, he faced 
about, plunged through the streets for home, and did not 
stop until he had carried her down the inclined way, 
through the low door-way, to his stall. Miss Fancher 
could not halt him, and seeing she was likely to be swept 
from her saddle by the lintel of the door-w T ay, she pros- 
trated herself on his back and escaped injury. 

But May ioth, 1864, w T as ominuous with fate. If she 
sensed its misfortunes she did not heed the premonitions, 
nor those of her aunt, who was impressed with approach- 
ing calamity, and besought her niece not to ride that horse 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 15 

that day, as she felt something dreadful was about to 
happen. Mollie did not share the fears of Miss Crosby, 
and laughed them, for the moment, away, only to return 
when she had gone. Miss Fancher had safely taken her 
accustomed ride, and was passing along Gates avenue 
toward her home, then only five blocks away, when 
she accidentally dropped the rein of the bridle on the 
horse's neck. She reached for it, but her hand being 
gauntleted, it missed her grasp. She inclined slightly 
forward to make sure of regaining it. The unguarded 
moment had come. Suddenly her horse, which until then 
was quietly walking, plunged forward, kicked his heels 
high in air, and she was precipitated to the pavement of 
the street, the top of her head striking with great force 
against the curb-stone, and her side the rough stone pave- 
ment. Two of her ribs were broken, her heavy hat alone 
saving the skull from being crushed. She was rendered 
at once unconscious, and with her foot caught in the 
stirrup she remained motionless where she had fallen. 
As if satisfied with what he had succeeded in doing, her 
horse stood until some one released her foot, when he 
galloped away to the stable. Unconscious and bleeding, 
Miss Fancher was taken to a house in St. James' place, 
while her aunt at home was waiting, anxious to know if 
her fears and premonitions had been realized. Her phy- 
sician was at once summoned. 

It is probable that Miss Fancher would have recovered 
from the effects of this fall had not a second misfortune 
followed a year later. It was nearly two months before 
she was able to be around ; and as soon as sufficiently 
recovered, she visited friends in Cornwall, on the Hudson, 
where she remained for two months, Dr. Beattie, since de- 
ceased, giving her the required medical attendance. 
While in Cornwall her physician became alarmed at a 
lc *xerQ swelling in her left side ; indicating the formation of 



l6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

an abscess. In this respect his fears were not realized ; 
the swelling, being occasioned by the irritation of the flesh 
from the broken ribs, gradually subsided, and Miss Fan- 
cher returned home. All her life she has been subject to 
severe headaches, which she suffers as an inheritance from 
her father. Before she left school she was subject to 
spells of coughing, which, together with weakness and 
fainting spells, gave warranted apprehensions of con- 
sumption. The shock occasioned by her fall, and the 
injury to her side, were certainly calculated to lessen her 
chances of recovery, and during the following Autumn 
occasional hemorrhages from her right lung increased 
the anxiety of her friends. 

Another feature of her case attracted less attention, 
but is essential to be mentioned to make its history as 
complete as possible. Her eyesight was becoming defect- 
ive ; her vision was double. She saw two objects where 
there was but one. When she attempted to thread a 
needle, she saw two threads, two needles and two eyes. 
With the return of Spring, in 1865, she was hopeful of 
regaining her health. For some time she had been receiv- 
ing the attention of Mr. John H. Taylor, a young gentle- 
man of respectability and of good social standing. At 
this period they were engaged to be married, and, though 
no time had been fixed for the nuptials, it was understood 
that they were shortly to be celebrated. She was expect- 
ing to make a visit to Boston — and her preparations were 
about completed. She desired to make a call upon her 
physician before leaving, and, having done so, stopped on 
her way home to do some shopping. This was June 8th, 
1865. With her hands full of packages, she took a Fulton 
street car, and, when as near to her home as the car would 
take her, she signaled to the conductor to stop. He rang 
the bell, the car was halted, and Miss Fancher, with pack- 
ages in hand, was about to step off the rear platform into 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. I 7 

the street, when the conductor rang the bell again for 
the car to move forward, turned his face and went into 
the car, evidently supposing she had safely alighted. 
Unfortunately, such was not the case, for, as she was 
in the act of stepping down, she was thrown violently 
to the ground. Unfortunately, her skirt, which was of 
strong crinoline, such as was universally worn by ladies at 
that time, caught in the iron hook at the rear of the car, 
by which she was rapidly dragged over the rough stone 
pavements, to within a few feet of an entire block, before 
the car was stopped, and then it was only by the attention 
of the driver being attracted to something wrong, by the 
shouts and cries of people who witnessed the shocking 
spectacle. She was taken up unconscious ; her ribs were 
broken, her body had been turning round and round, 
twisting her crinoline into a rope as she was dragged 
through the street. This rope she has preserved, but not 
as a pleasing memento of her misfortune. 

She was taken into a neighboring butcher's store, but 
it was long before she could be removed to her home. 
She was lifted from the ground and immediately recog- 
nized by friends, who gave her such assistance as was in 
their power. Her aunt was already alarmed at her long 
absence, and the more so, because of forebodings of other 
misfortunes about to come, which she had communicated 
to her niece before she left home that morning. 



1 8 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Miss Fancher's Indescribable Sufferings. 

Up to the accident described in the preceding chapter, 
Miss Fancher delares that she was unaware of any spinal 
trouble. She had not experienced any numbness of her 
limbs, nor peculiar sensitiveness along the spinal column. 
Three months after the car accident, she suffered from 
soreness and pain in the spine. "For six weeks," she 
says, "I was confined to my bed. At the end of that 
period I was able to go around the room by the aid 
of a chair, or something to lean upon. During the time 
I was in bed, the cords of my left limb had so contracted 
that I was unable to more than get the toes of my foot to 
the floor. From that time it continued to grow worse un- 
til it was useless. My eyesight had continued to fail. I 
managed to move around the room, anxious to occupy my 
mind with some employment, and did such work as I was 
able. Every effort to bring my heel to the floor gave me 
pain in my back. About September ist the spinal troubles 
manifested themselves more severely. Upon one occa- 
sion I was assisting my aunt in preserving peaches, when 
my left arm dropped helplessly by my side, and for the 
two weeks following I was unable to use it." 

In addition to the services of her physician, when the 
hemorrhages from her lungs became more alarming, a 
council of specialists was called, comprising the best tal- 
ent obtainable. In those days the names of the physicians 
were familiar all over the country. They were Dr. Wil- 
lard Parker, Dr. Baker, Dr. Ball and Dr. Belden. They 
all were specialists in lung diseases, and in December of 
1865, they met at the residence of Miss Fancher and made 



THE LIFE OF MOI.I.TE FANCHER. J 9 

a critical examination, and their conclusion was, that she 
would not survive the month of the coming February, in 
consequence of the disease in the right lung. Miss Fan- 
cher continued to suffer from her right lung until May, 
1866, when it ceased to trouble her. To all appearances 
it is dead. The right side of her chest is fallen; the air- 
cells are evidently closed, and since then she breathes 
only with her left lung. We will now use Miss Fancher's 
own language in describing her case. 

"On February 3d, 1866, I was taken with inflammation 
of the lungs. That night I was attended by my regular 
physician and his son; the latter remained with me all night. 
During the night I was supposed to be dying. My friends 
were summoned to the bedside, and Rev. David Moore 
came and offered prayer. My physicians said I was dying; 
I felt and believed that I was, and I bade my friends good- 
bye. Well, unfortunately, I did not die, as the doctors 
predicted. The first spasms I had were on the 7th of 
February, 1866. Again my friends thought I was dying. 
Rev. Mr. Moore was again summoned. At the intervals 
between he asked me questions, and my friends sang a 
favorite hymn with low, sad voices, " Nearer My God to 
Thee." Again the doctor announced that I was dying, 
but I put my finger upon my wrist and sensed the beating 
of my pulse, and as often as the doctor pronounced me 
dying, I said, ' it beats yet.' Again he spent the night 
by my bedside, sensing my pulse and heart action, evi- 
dently very much puzzled. These spasms were followed 
by my first trance, which lasted three hours. Of course 
I am ignorant of what transpired about me while I was in 
a trance, although I am sometimes conscious of what 
others are not, and I can only relate what I was told tran- 
spired. I was told I represented the appearance of being 
dead, and my physician pronounced me so. This, it must 
be remembered, in justice to him, was his first experience 



20 THE LIFE OF M0LL1E FANCHER. 

in anything of the kind. He had read of trances, but 
evidently not with such symptoms as mine. My aunt 
would not have it that I was dead. My jaws were set, 
but she forced some brandy and water between my teeth, 
insisting that I was not dead. The spasms had continued 
during the night of February 7th, and I went into a trance 
on the morning of the 8th, about six o'clock. My trance 
lasted about three hours; then I came out, but what had 
in the meantime transpired was, to me, an utter blank. 
When I came out of the trance I was conscious for awhile, 
then the spasms came on and lasted several hours, and 
from the spasms I passed into a trance again. These 
trances continued for three consecutive days and nights. 
The watch at my bedside was necessarily continuous dur- 
ing this time. I was unconscious; my death was momen- 
tarily expected. I took no nourishment. At the end of 
those three days spasms came again. Then I had them 
day and night, for nine years, alternating with trances. 
Usually the spasms would last for three hours, and the 
trances from about five to fourteen hours, and sometimes 
two or three days at a time. Between these conditions I 
had spells of consciousness. I am not aware that I have 
ever been in what is usually understood as insane or de- 
lirious conditions since my trances came upon me. I have 
never heard my physicians say so, with one or two excep- 
tions, which will be explained later on. 

" For two months after my trances commenced, fourteen 
persons were in constant attendance upon me, a relay of 
seven being required to hold me upon the bed during the 
spasms. My body and limbs were drawn together until I 
was almost a ball; then I leaped forward like an arrow, 
and would have been killed but for the protection of 
friends and the wadded obstructions placed in the way. 
These conditions continued until the first week in May of 
1866. when I went into a long: trance." 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE 1'ANCHER. 2 1 

Up to this time Miss Fancher had had spells of con- 
sciousness, lasting at times a few hours, at others a much 
less time. It seems quite natural that her physician should 
direct his efforts to break the coming of these spasms, 
which were so violent, and seemingly distressing. Anom- 
alous cases are constantly arising, in which the skill and 
judgment of the physician are powerless to relieve the 
patient, and I hope to be pardoned by my many medical 
friends for saying, that at times recovery or death may 
be the accident of experiment. And it is not always the 
fault of the physician that this is so. Emergencies often 
arise in life, where others than doctors are forced to ex- 
treme measures to meet a great hazard, where greater 
danger attends inaction. Theirs is a profession which 
deals with our bodies for their preservation, as houses for 
the souls that possess them. We are often astonished at 
the ease with which the occupant is dispossessed; and 
then we are amazed, when the house is in ruins, to find the 
tenant disputing with death possession of the fragments. 

I shall let Miss Fancher tell in her own words, as nearly 
as possible, the treatment she was subjected to for the 
purpose of breaking these spasms, during the Winter and 
Spring of 1866. She does not censure her physician, who 
found her case unparalleled in many respects, and who, 
under the circumstances, was justified in making all rea- 
sonable efforts to save her life and alleviate her sufferings. 
He was sorely perplexed. How could she live without 
food, and how recover, or even improve, without medi- 
cines ? were questions he naturally asked himself, and if 
either was forced into her stomach, in quantities to ac- 
complish beneficial results, it was at once rejected. There 
was no medicine in the smallest quantity which did not 
occasion her the greatest distress. She soon became sat- 
isfied that all attempted remedies were hurtful to her, and, 
in her conscious moments, rebelled against taking any. 



22 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

"It was," she says, " forced into my mouth, and I kept it 
there until I got the opportunity, and then I rejected it. 
My doctor thought I was insane, but, as a matter of fact, 
I was never more rational in my life. I found every rem- 
edy increased my sufferings, and I begged to be let alone. 
In fact, my spasms and trances were essential to my liv- 
ing; but this my physicians did not know, nor is it aston- 
ishing that they should not. It was in these conditions, 
strange as it may seem, that I got any rest, and it ever 
since has been so. When they stop I shall surely die. The 
first remedy externally applied, was brisk rubbing of my 
body with alcohol, from the moment I went into a trance 
until I came out of it, to break the trance, my physician 
believing it was absolutely essential that I should be 
aroused from these trances to save my life. The spasms 
preceding these trances greatly exhausted me. As I went 
into a trance my body and limbs became rigid and im- 
movable, my hands were usually folded across my breast, 
and my eyes were open and upturned. I am told that my 
physicians frequently raised me to a standing position by 
placing their hands back of my head, without the least 
flexibility of my body or limbs, my body being seemingly 
as rigid as a piece of statuary. During these times my 
eyes were not affected by light, nor were they sensitive 
to the touch, and I was subject to many experiments, to 
determine if my body was in any degree sensitive to pain ; 
the conclusion of my physicians being that it was not. 

" Rubbing with alcohol failing to be of any use, my 
head was next shaved and blistered, and from this my 
suffering was very great ; but I submitted, hoping that 
some good would result, but was disappointed. Then I was 
treated with electricity for awhile ; a battery was applied 
for a few days, with no benefit. Then my physician 
thought it advisable to change the position of my bed, so 
that I would lie in line with the earth's magnetic cur- 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 23 

rents ; my head was to point directly north, and my body 
and limbs south ; so the bed was wheeled into the required 
position, and I was divested of all jewelry and metallic 
substances, and a large horse-shoe magnet was placed at 
my feet. This occasioned me no suffering, and I was 
satisfied with it, but it produced no apparent change of 
condition ; so I was next put into a sitz-bath three times 
in twenty-four hours, and this was kept up for six weeks. 
The water was made hot, and sometimes it was medicated 
with herbs. The doctor thought he was doing me good, 
but he was only adding torture to torture. 

" From the sitz-bath he resorted to a steam-bath of dry 
alcohol. I was placed in the bath-tub, and the tub 
covered with blankets, and my person up to my chin, and 
lamps burning alcohol placed in the tub. The heat was 
not properly regulated, and my body was terribly burned, 
the skin in places peeling off. My spasms continuing in 
violence, my physician believing if he could once break 
them they would not return, and I would get better, and 
finding hot baths had done no good, he reversed his 
remedies, and commenced to treat me with cold water. 
First I was put in a bath of very hot water, and while there 
pails of ice-cold water were poured upon my head until I 
fainted from suffering and exhaustion. Then I was taken 
from the bath-tub and put in bed and my body and limbs 
vigorously rubbed. I was not permitted to rest even in 
my trances, which rendered me unconscious, but was con- 
stantly disturbed by some method of treatment. 

" I was next rolled in wet sheets wrung out from cold 
water, and made to lie in these until I could and would 
endure it no longer ; then I projected my elbows with all 
my strength, and burst the sheets, and was at once de- 
clared to be in another fit of insanity. 

"The next treatment which caused my utter rebellion 
was the application of ice. First, a jacket was made in 



24 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

the required form, with big open pockets extending from 
the top of my head down my spine, and around my body. 
Then five bladders were filled with ice ; one was placed 
upon my stomach, three on my spine and one on the top 
of my head. Soon my agony was beyond comprehension. 
I was satisfied that my treatment was but a series of 
experiments, intensifying my suffering, and preventing 
any chance of my recovery. I have a temper, and it was 
then aroused. I seized the bladder of ice on top of my 
head and hurled it across the room. This was followed 
by the four others sent in the same direction. Meanwhile 
the doctor believed I had gone insane, and I was pro- 
nounced a raving maniac. Well, I was raving. My vocab- 
ulary was insufficient to express^ my feelings, and I 
positively refused to submit to any further treatment. I 
regret to make all of these matters public, and I only do 
so at the request of my friends, who desire that I shall 
conceal nothing in giving a history of my case. This 
physician is dead, and I have no desire now to censure 
him. My case was anomalous, and he did the best he 
could for me. His son, a very excellent physician, I 
esteem as among my friends. He was commissioned at 
times by his father to apply some of these treatments, 
and frequently let me off, after exacting a promise that 
his father should not be informed. 

" My aunt believed everything to be right that my 
physician ordered. She continued to allow him to visit 
the house, and learn from her my condition. This went 
on for three weeks, when I desired another physician. 
Dr. McFail, who then was quite eminent in his profession 
in Brooklyn, was recommended by a friend. He was 
called, but, seeing that it was a case which required great 
attention, he concluded that he could not do me justice, 
and recommended his nephew, who had just returned 
from Paris, and was commencing practice here. "This 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 25 

gentleman is Dr. S. Fleet Spier, who first saw me April 
6th, 1886, and has been one of my faithful and skillful 
attendants since that time. Some of the physicians who 
have attended me have been more than doctors ; they 
have been faithful friends, to whom I owe a debt of grati- 
tude I cannot discharge ; and I can only pray that they 
may receive the abundant reward, due from a multitude of 
good deeds. 

" Between the shower baths and ice applications my 
doctor had, for the time, broken my spasms, and for 
several days they entirely ceased ; but during that time I 
failed rapidly, being most of the time unconscious. Then 
my physicians began to recognize the fact, that these 
spasms and trances served an essential part in maintain- 
ing life, and if they were discontinued, I would unques- 
tionably die. Consequently, a new mode of treatment 
forced itself upon their attention. I took so little nourish- 
ment that they concluded I would die from starvation. I 
was placed in a sitz-bath which was charged with beef tea, 
that my body might receive nourishment by absorbing it. 

"About the middle of March, 1866, when I came out ot 
a spasm, I found my throat paralyzed, and almost every 
time there was some new complication. For instance, 
sometimes my sense of hearing was so impaired that I 
was entirely deaf, and the only way that I could under- 
stand or hear, was by having those who spoke to me 
approach so near to my face, that the sound of the voice 
could penetrate my nostrils, and in that way communicate 
with my brain, or organs of hearing. Exactly how it was 
accomplished I cannot understand ; and even to this day 
my left ear has never recovered its power of hearing; 
that side of my head is entirely deaf. This loss of hear- 
ing occurred about the last of February, t866. On the 
22d of February I had a terrific spasm, and my eyesight 
failed me entirely, and I have never recovered the same. 



26 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

I can see, but not by the use of my eyes. When I first 
became conscious of my failing sight, I was greatly 
alarmed, but hoped to recover it again. When I had this 
terrible spasm that I have just spoken of, and I had come 
out of my trance, I found it suddenly growing dark, and I 
supposed it was the approach of night, and asked my 
aunt to light the gas in my room so that I could see. 
She replied, 'It is lighted, darling ; can't you see it?' I 
said, ' No, it is all dark.' Then she lighted another burner 
to satisfy me, and then another, but still all was dark. 
Then the consciousness dawned upon me that I was blind, 
and a sense of horror came over me, and I exclaimed : ' Oh, 
my God, I am blind ; with all my other afflictions I am blind.' 

" Now, bear in mind, that at this time my ordinary 
sense of hearing was so impaired that I could only dis- 
tinguish voices in the manner I have described, and with 
my eyesight gone, I was left to my sense of feeling to 
recognize those around me. It is somewhat difficult for 
me now to get the exact dates of the appearance of these 
different symptoms, but I give them as nearly as I can re- 
member them, trusting to the memorandums made by my 
aunt, and also those made by my physicians to correct 
any errors. 

" I lost my sight before I lost my hearing. These 
symptoms and conditions which I am now describing were 
crowded into the months of February, March, April and 
May of 1866, and I will give them in their order as I 
recollect them. I recall that I could recognize Dr. Spier 
by a peculiarity of one of his thumbs, which had a little 
roughness of the nail. I recognized my aunt by a pin 
which she wore. Other friends would place in my hands 
something which I was familiar with, and then I would 
know of their presence. 

4< It was in February that the spasms had closed my 
throat to such an extent, that it was almost impossible 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 2J 

for any kind of nourishment to be received. The organs 
of the throat became so rigid, and so hard, that when 
struck, the sound resembled that of wood or stone, and 
this rigidity of my throat continued for nine years, with 
the exception of one instance, when it relaxed for a 
short time only. After my throat became paralyzed they 
gave me enemas of beef-tea, brandy and milk-punches. 
They made bags of Peruvian bark, dipped them in brandy 
and laid them on my chest. I remonstrated against this, 
and begged to be let alone, feeling sure that I would get 
along better without them. 

" After Dr. Spier came, he continued to give me medi- 
cines for a while, but finding they did me no good, that I 
could not retain them, they were discontinued. The loss 
of my power of hearing was followed by the loss of the 
sense of feeling. I lost the sense of touch, then the 
sense of smell, then the sense of taste, and then the 
power of speech. 

" During this time my friends were unable to make 
their presence known to me for quite a time. My power 
of communicating to them was utterly lost, and, for a time 
to me, they seemed dead. The doctor was investigating, 
to find if he could discover any part which was alive to 
the sense of touch, and finally he found that by putting 
his finger back of my left ear I knew him. I knew him 
by the peculiarity of his thumb, which I have already 
mentioned. 

" At times between these trances and spasms, I was in 
perfect possession of my mental faculties, and I never, to 
my knowledge, lost them once. Whether I possessed all 
or not, must be determined from what I saw and did. At 
any rate, I supposed that I possessed all of my mental 
faculties and powers. 

" Following the loss of these other powers, my fingers 
became cramped into the palms of my hands, in which 



28 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

condition they remained for a long time, my thumbs being 
perfectly free. This, if I recollect aright, was in May, 1866. 

"About the month of May, 1866, my second sight, a 
power or sense of seeing without the use of the natural 
organs of sight — my eyes, and which has occasioned so 
much comment, began to develop, and it came in this 
way. First I seemed to have a consciousness of the posi- 
tion of things around me, and the movements of persons, 
without actually seeing them with my eyes. My watch, a 
small gold one, was hanging over the mantel-piece on 
the opposite side of the room, quite a distance from me, 
and placed in such a way that no persons, with their 
ordinary sight, could see it, so as to determine the time, 
from the position where I was lying. Well, I saw, in some 
way that I cannot explain, the face of that watch, the 
position of its hands, and I could correctly state the 
time. My aunt had got into the habit of opening and 
reading my letters, and communicating their contents to 
me, and upon one occasion, after I had recovered the use 
of my hands, and power of speech, and sense of hearing in 
one of my ears, a letter came, and she proceeded to open 
it and read it, when I insisted that she should give it to 
me. She replied, ' Why, darling, you know you can't read 
it,' but I persisted and she gave it to me. I at once took 
it in my hands and read it to her. She was astonished ; 
because she saw at once that I did it without the use of 
my eyes. Then my friends began to make various tests, 
asking me all sorts of questions as to what they had in 
their pockets and in their hands, and it was found that I 
could tell them correctly. My sense of feeling was not 
gone probably more than a week or ten days, and when 
it came back I possessed it more keenly then ever before.'-' 

Before proceeding further with statements of Miss 
Fancher, a chapter from the records kept by her aunt shall 
be inserted, 




MOLLIE FANCHER AS SHE APPEARED FIVE MONTHS AFTER 
THE ACCIDENT. 



THE LIFE OK MOLL1K FANCHER. 2() 



CHAPTER V. 



Miss Crosby's Records. 

In the previous part of this book, I have stated that I 
had access to quite extensive minutes of Miss Fancher's 
case, which were kept by her aunt, Miss Susan E. Crosby, 
during her lifetime. I have those now in my possession, 
in order to confirm many of the features of Miss Fancher's 
case ; and to enable me to speak in detail of some others, 
as they are contained in those writings, I shall take them 
up and go through with them, extracting what I deem to be 
of interest and importance. A great deal would be uninterest- 
ing matter, because it is a daily recital of the symptoms 
and condition in which Miss Fancher was at the time the 
records were made up, and in many instances they are so 
similar, that to repeat them would be a useless task. 
What follows is substantially verbatim, at the commence- 
ment of Miss Crosby's diary. 

" Mollie Fancher, when a child, and up to the age of 
fifteen years, was healthy. For a year afterwards she was 
troubled with weakness in the chest, and a slight cough ; 
then dyspepsia set in, and she suffered from sickness at 
the stomach, sinking, fainting feelings, and this continued 
until March, 1864, when her symptoms became more aggra- 
vated. She vomited her food, and could keep scarcely 
anything on her stomach. She left her school in April, 
being within two months of graduating, and the disap- 
pointment was so keen that she seemed greatly disheart- 
ened. She was then advised to commence horse-back 
riding as a cure for dyspepsia. She was then under 
medical treatment. May 10th she was thrown from her 
horse ; the shock was very severe ; her head and side 



30 THE LIFE 0E MOLLtE PANCHER. 

troubled her very much. Under the Doctor's direction 
she went to Cornwall, in July, where she received medical 
treatment, constantly complaining of her head and side, 
and going out to ride one day she was taken ill ; the lower 
part of her body was paralyzed, and during the night she 
was for a short time unconscious. She remained in a 
feeble state for several weeks, suffering in her head and 
side. The Doctor thought she was having an abscess 
form under her left lung. On examination, however, he 
found a rib was fractured, which occasioned the swelling. 
For nine days and nights she had no rest, and remained 
feeble until September, when she returned home, and 
seemed to rally, and was quite smart during the Fall and 
Winter, and up to June, 1865. On the 8th of that month^ 
as she was leaving a car on Fulton avenue, she was thrown 
to the ground and dragged nearly the length of a block. 
For an hour or more after the accident she was in fainting 
fits, and then rallied. Upon examination the Doctor dis- 
covered two more ribs in the left side were fractured, and 
also that her head was hurt. She remained very weak 
and feeble during the summer, her nervous system appear- 
ing severely shattered ; she did not seem to gain strength, 
and at times she would lose the power of her left arm ; 
then remaining at times in fainting fits, suffering most 
when lying down. She also had a cough. The last of 
August she had a severe attack of illness, the left side and 
lower part of her body becoming paralyzed. It was sev- 
eral days before she recovered the full use of her bodily 
power. She then rallied for awhile, then other symptoms, 
as of spinal disease, appeared, and her head, side and 
cough seemed worse as the season advanced. S'he com- 
plained of weakness and pain in her chest ; also pain 
through her right shoulder, and was not able to lie down, 
and was apparently failing very fast. This continued to 
February, up to which time for eighteen months she had 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 3 1 

not had a good night's rest. On the 3d of February she 
was taken with spasms, which continued for a short time, 
leaving her very weak, until Thursday, the 8th. Her 
symptoms were great weakness, severe cough, pain in her 
head, side, spine and chest, and through the right shoulder. 
She suffered intensely from difficulty in breathing, and was 
unable to lie down. At half-past four in the evening of 
that day she commenced having severe spasms, which 
lasted until one o'clock. Soon after the spasms she ap- 
peared lifeless; then she rallied a little, but was thought 
to be dying ; her cough left her, and she remained very 
weak, without pain, until Sunday, the nth, when she 
seemed to be again sinking very fast. On Monday, 
the 12th, she rallied and seemed to show signs of life. 
She suffered intensely in her head, spine and side, and 
apparently in her heart. Upon Tuesday, the 13th, she 
seemed to be unconscious most of the time, still suffering 
in her spine. On the 14th she continued to have spasms 
once a day, coming on about one o'clock and continuing 
an hour or an hour and twenty minutes ; also suffering 
and severe pains in her head and spine. On Thursday, 
the 15th, spasms set in twice a day, at one and at ten 
o'clock, followed by a trance of from one to two hours' 
duration. Friday, the 16th, she still remained in the same 
state, spasms alternating with trances, as above stated. 
Suffering from head and heart continued. Saturday, the 
17th, the spasms and trances were followed by a loss of 
eyesight. Sunday, the 18th, very hard spasms, and she 
continued in the same way, the trances following twice 
during the day, and requiring five and six persons to hold 
her. On Monday, the 19th, she lost her hearing, having 
spasms and trance, and suffering intensely from head and 
spine. Tuesday, the 20th, she was unconscious, having 
spasms and trance. Wednesday, the 21st, she seemed at 
times more conscious, but the spasms and trances continued. 



3 2 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Thursday, the 2 2d, she had spasms very hard from one 
to two hours, on coming out of which her body ap- 
peared to be paralyzed, and she had her senses, but no 
power to move. After having been rubbed for an hour 
with alcohol she rallied and saw, heard and spoke for half 
an hour. On Friday, the 23d, she lost the sense of smell. 
On Saturday, the 24th, her hands closed. On Sunday 
the 25th, her jaws were locked. On Monday, the 26th, her 
limbs contracted, she still continuing to have spasms 
twice a day, followed by a trance. During the intervals 
she suffered much in her head and spine. Tuesday, the 
27th, she seemed in a very feeble state, suffering severely 
with spasms apparently round the heart. She remained 
very feeble for two days up to March 2d. She had 
spasms and trances in the same way. From March 3d to 
iviarch 7th she endured great suffering. On the 7th she 
had very severe spasms, after which she was paralyzed 
until the 9th, when her muscles relaxed, and she saw, heard 
and spoke ; her hands also opened, and she remained so 
for several hours, possessing all her natural powers. Then 
they again left her. From the 9th to the 13th of March 
she was very weak, constantly fainting, part of the time 
unconscious, but had no spasms or trances. On Tuesday 
the 13th, her spasms returned once a day, continuing for 
about twenty minutes, followed by a trance of from three 
to five hours. She was unconscious most of the time, and 
suffered intensely with her head. Wednesday, the 14th, 
she had spasms in the head ; was very feeble and not ex- 
pected to live throughout the day. At eight o'clock in 
the evening she rallied a little, still remaining in a feeble 
state up to Thursday evening, the 15th, and then rallied 
and spoke and sung, and appeared to be very happy. 
Then her speech left her, and her jaws closed. Her sense 
of feeling left her ; she had no power to express herself, 
but still appeared to be conscious, and remained in that 



THE LIFE OK MOLLIE FANCHER. 33 

condition up to Thursday morning, the 16th, when the 
power to perceive and communicate by the sense of touch 
returned and continued until two o'clock. Then again 
she had severe spasms and trance, followed by paralysis, 
until Sunday, when she rallied, and was conscious, but was 
very feeble up to the 19th. During the day she seemed 
quite smart, with much unnatural strength ; was able to 
write and work, but in the evening she was delirious. 
Tuesday, the 21st, she again seemed quite smart; her hands 
opened for a short time. Most of the week she w r as 
absent-minded and had much unnatural strength. Wed- 
nesday, the 28th, she again had spasms around the heart, 
and remained very feeble for three days. After spasms 
or trances, having fainting spslls most of the time, and 
being oppressed with the loss of breath, and apparently in 
a sinking condition. Tuesday, the 27th, she appeared to 
have more life, and the spasms and trances returned. 
Thursday, the 30th, she was more cheerful, and was able to 
write during the day, but in the evening was absent-minded, 
and had much unnatural strength ; had spasms and trances 
up to April 1st, when she was again quite improved most of 
the day. She had light spasms and a trance lasting from 
two to three hours. April 2d she seemed most of the 
time absent-minded and very weak, which continued up 
to the 4th, then after having very severe spasms and a 
trance her throat closed; she remained very weak and 
feeble until the 6th, and was unconscious most of the time. 
Friday morning, April the 6th, she was very weak, absent- 
minded at times ; spasms alternating with trances. Satur- 
day, the 7th, she was in a weak and fainting condition most 
of the time, spasms with very light trances in the usual 
way. Sunday, the 8th, she continued in the same condi- 
tion. On Monday, the 9th, she was absent-minded at 
times, and had spasms alternating with trances lasting for 
three or four hours. Tuesday, the 10th, she seemed quite 



34 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

improved; she had spasms and trances, and at six o'clock 
in the evening her throat and jaws relaxed, and she spoke 
quite plainly, and then became absent-minded, and re- 
mained in that condition for three days, suffering greatly 
from nausea; was unable to take any nourishment; spasms 
and trances continued. On Saturday, the 14th, she was 
quite improved up to three o'clock, having severe spasms 
followed by trance lasting from three to four hours, and 
remaining in an unconscious state all night. On Sunday, 
the 15th, she was very feeble, her throat closed again, and 
she had the spasms and trance as usual. On Monday, the 
16th, she remained about the same, very feeble, spasms 
followed by trances; fainting spells, leaving her in an 
absent-minded condition; her throat remained closed un- 
til Monday, the 23d, then it opened for one day. Tues- 
day, the 24th, her throat closed again, and her spasms and 
trances continued. She appeared a little stronger and 
more cheerful, and remained in about the same condition, 
spasms and trances continuing, until the 28th. On that 
day her throat opened for a little time. She then became 
absent-minded during the spasms; then her eye-lids closed; 
she lost the use of her hands and arms, and at times her 
speech, and remained in that condition until May 4th. 
During this time she had spasms and trances; her throat 
was closed, and yet at times, she appeared quite smart and 
full of life until May 10th, when her throat opened, but 
was soon closed again during the spasms, which were fol- 
lowed as usual by a trance. She remained unconscious 
until Sunday evening, suffering intensely with her head 
and heart. May nth she was more comfortable during 
the day, was absent-minded in the evening; spasms and 
trances continued. She was very restless at night. May 
13th she was very weak and lost her speech; she had her 
usual spasms followed by a trance, in which condition she 
remained a long time, when she rallied, but was uncon- 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 35 

scious during the night. May 14th her throat was still 
closed; her feeble condition continued. She was speech- 
less, and the trance followed her spasms up to May 16th; 
she was unconscious most of that day, during which she 
had her spasms and trance. May 17th she seemed more 
comfortable, and was able to write two letters. She had 
a spasm and trance, and was quite restless during the 
night. Friday she seemed much improved; the spasm and 
trance condition continued, and in the evening she spoke. 
On Saturday, the 19th, she seemed very smart up to two 
o'clock, when her jaw relaxed, and we forced some nour- 
ishment into her stomach. This was immediately fol- 
lowed by severe spasms, lasting from three to four hours, 
when she went into a trance, in which condition she re- 
mained for one hour, and then rallied, but was uncon- 
scious, apparently suffering intensely with her head and 
heart until Sunday evening at five o'clock. That evening 
she spoke and asked for food; she seemed to be almost 
famished. She took a small piece of cracker, and one 
teaspoonful of punch, which was the first food in seven 
weeks, that she was able to keep on her stomach. Mon- 
day, the 2 1 st, she was very feeble, her spasms were light, 
and she had her usual trance. This condition continued 
during the 22d, but she suffered severely with her head, 
and her throat closed again during the day, and the only 
nourishment she was able to take was two teaspoonfuls of 
milk punch a day. Wednesday, the 23d, she had spasms 
and a trance, which condition continued during Friday 
and Saturday following. On Saturday, the 27th, she ap- 
peared quite cheerful in the morning. In the afternoon 
she suffered severely in her head and heart, and in the 
evening she was severely shocked by a peal of thunder 
and lost her speech. On Monday, the 28th, she suffered 
severely in her head, had very severe spasms, and at two 
o'clock she went into a rigid trance, in which condition 



36 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

she remained until half-past eleven o'clock the next day, 
when she fell off into a relax trance, in which condition 
she remained until Friday evening at eight o'clock, June 
1st, when she rallied with a great effort. She breathed 
with great difficulty, and it seemed as if her natural powers 
were nearly exhausted. She remained in this condition 
until the following Monday. June 2d her jaws relaxed, 
when the opportunity was improved to force some nour- 
ishment into her stomach, which was immediately rejected. 
She soon went into spasms, lasting about an hour, and re- 
mained unconscious for a short time. She began to be 
very sick at her stomach, and suffered intensely until Sat- 
urday evening, June 3d, when her throat closed, and she 
was not able to take any nourishment or to utter a sound. 
On Monday, June 4th, she was very much exhausted and 
remained weak and feeble until the 6th, when she went 
into a trance for a short time, the first she had had for 
six days, suffering intensely with her head and difficult 
breathing. Thursday, June 7th, she was very feeble dur- 
ing the day, not being able to speak, going into and out 
of trances all night, suffering greatly with her head and 
heart. On Friday, the 8th, in the morning she was uncon- 
scious, but very restless during the day. She went into 
a trance during the night, suffering intensely with head 
and heart; her throat was still closed; she was unable to 
speak. On Saturday, the 9th, she remained weak during 
the day, and in the evening at ten o'clock she was taken 
with spasms for the first time since June 1st. This was 
followed by a trance and severe suffering in the head and 
chest. Sunday, June 10th, her suffering continued, and 
she had spasms and trances until Wednesday, the 13th. 
On the 13th, during the day and night, she had spasms 
alternating with trances, going in and out of trances all 
night, and was apparently suffering greatly with pains in 
her head and chest, and very difficult breathing. On Sat- 



THE LIFE OF MOT, LIE FANCHKK. 37 

urday, the 16th, in the morning she was very weak; at one 
o'clock she became absent-minded and remained so dur- 
ing the remainder of the day and night, having spasms 
followed by a trance, which continued up to Sunday, the 
17th. The suffering with her head being very intense she 
was not able to speak, her throat being still closed. 

"From May 24th to June 28th she has not been able to 
take any nourishment. One pint of sweet oil has been 
used in bathing her chest and bowels, and that has been 
all the sustenance she has received. She still remains 
feeble, having spasms and trances during the night, but 
remains conscious. Her limbs are contracted, her eye- 
lids are closed, she has lost the use of her right arm, also 
her hands are closed. Friday, June 28th, she was uncon- 
scious during the day, was very feeble, and suffering with 
spasms,* followed by a trance during the night, and coming 
out of the trance on Friday evening, she lost all power of 
communicating; her stomach and neck were contracted, 
her right arm was drawn over her head; both arms were 
paralyzed. Her lower limbs were contracted, her eyes 
and throat were closed, her jaws were locked, and she re- 
mained in this state, unconscious, until nine o'clock in the 
evening. She suffered very severe pain in the head up to 
Sunday morning, July 1st. She remained unconscious 
until Monday at two o'clock, then went into a spasm, 
which was followed by a short trance during the night. 
On Thursday, the 12th, she received a severe shock from a 
fire alarm; she suffered severely from her head, heart, 
stomach and teeth up to twelve o'clock, when she went in- 
to an unconscious state, in which she remained until Sun- 
day morning at nine o'clock, when she rallied and became 
conscious. From Thursday to Sunday she had neither 
spasms nor trance. On Sunday, the 15th, she was very 
feeble during the day, and in the evening seemed to be 
in a sinking condition. At nine o'clock she seemed to be 



38 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

in very great distress about the heart. She lay in a faint- 
ing condition until nine o'clock the next morning, when 
she rallied, but was still in a feeble condition. She had 
very restless nights, suffering still from her head, teeth, 
heart and chest, and remained about the same up to Wed- 
nesday, the 18th. On that day she had a severe shock 
from a heavy clap of thunder; she suffered intensely in 
her head and heart. She also had very hard spasms, her 
body being contracted into the form of a hoop, sometimes 
bent backward and then forward. These conditions lasted 
for an hour and a half, when she went into a trance for an 
hour, then she rallied, but was very feeble. She remained 
in this state until Friday, the 20th, when she became more 
comfortable. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 39 



CHAPTER VI. 



Miss Crosby's Records Continued. 

" On Saturday, the 2 1st, her throat opened and she took a 
teaspoonful of wine, but could not keep the same on her 
stomach. On Sunday, the 22d, she was more comfortable. 
On Monday she remained about the same, and again took 
a teaspoonful of wine, but her stomach was not able to re- 
tain it. At nine o'clock in the evening she began to suffer 
intensely with her head and went into an absent-minded 
condition, which continued until twelve o'clock, when 
for an hour and a half she had very severe spasms, 
being bent into various forms, and then went into a trance 
for an hour. Coming out of the trance her lips were con- 
tracted and remained so for two days, so that she was not 
able to take even a drop of water. On Wednesday, the 
25th, she was again able to open her lips, swallowed half a 
teaspooful of wine, which remained on her stomach. On 
Thursday, the 26th, her throat closed, and she liad spasms 
and trances during the night, which condition continued 
until Saturday, the 28th. She was very restless at night, 
had spasms and short trances ; was unable to swallow any- 
thing ; her throat was still contracted ; had no power to 
move her limbs except her feet ; her eyes were closed, and 
she was unable to speak. On Sunday, the 29th, she 
appeared to be more comfortable during the day. She 
had spasms and trances during the night. On Monday, 
the 31st, she was quite comfortable during the day, and at 
eight o'clock began to have very severe spasms, which con- 
tinued for an hour ; she suffered during the night severely 
in her head and stomach. August 1st she had very hard 
spasms, which continued for an hour and a half. She then 



40 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

went into an absent-minded condition, and so remained 
until nine o'clock in the morning of August 2d. She 
appeared more comfortable during that day, but had very 
severe spasms, followed by a trance during the night, and 
remained in about the same condition up to about August 
4th. At nine o'clock in the evening she fell into a faint- 
ing condition, and remained so for three hours ; she was 
unconscious during a portion of the night. On August 
5th chloroform was administered to relax the jaws, so 
that some troublesome teeth might be extracted. She 
went immediately into a spasm, and continued so for two 
hours and a half. She was unconscious up to seven 
o'clock. This was followed by a short trance of twenty 
minutes. She came out of the trance unconscious, and 
remained so until Thursday, the 9th ; then she rallied for 
a short time. She then fell into an absent-minded state, 
and remained so until Friday morning at ten o'clock, when 
she rallied, but was very weak. She was conscious up to 
Saturday evening, when she went into spasms, which con- 
tinued most of the night without a trance. Sunday morn- 
ing, August 12th, she was quite cheerful, continuing so 
during the day ; having spasms and a trance during the 
night. On Tuesday, August 14th, she was about the same 
as the day previous, until eight o'clock, when she went 
into an absent-minded condition, remaining so all night, 
and was very feeble. On Wednesday, 15th, she appeared 
in much the same condition as the day previous, with the 
usual spells of spasms and trances during the night. On 
Thursday, 16th, she was much more comfortable and had 
the use of her left arm, and was able to converse con- 
siderably by writing, but at eight o'clock she went into an 
absent-minded condition, in which state she continued 
until midnight ; then she went into spasms and short 
trances, which continued until morning. On Friday, the 
1 8th, she was very weak ; spasms and trances continued 




/ 



"Hf 







THE LIFE OF MCLL1E FANCHER. 4 1 

during the night, and she remained in substantially the 
same condition up to and during Monday, the 20th. On 
Tuesday, 21st, she remained in about the same condition, 
having the use of her left arm and was able to communicate 
by writing, but was not able to take any nourishment. She 
had spasms and trances during the night. On Thursday, 
23d, she complained of intense suffering in her head and 
had very severe spasms and trances during the night. 
On Friday, 24th, she had become more comfortable, and 
remained so during the day, with spasms and short trances 
at night. She remained in about the same condition up to 
Sunday, 27th, and on that day she swallowed half a tea- 
spoonful of wine and was quite cheerful, but she had 
severe spasms and short trances during the night. On 
November 28th she appeared in much the same condition 
during the day, having spasms and trances during the 
night, in which condition she remained up to Wednesday, 
the 30th, when she suffered severely with her head, having 
severe spasms and short trances at night. On Friday, 
31st, she was very feeble during the day ; at night she 
appeared to be in a sinking condition, having neither 
spasms nor trances. She was in great distress from pains 
around her head. She continued in this condition, suffer- 
ing greatly during Saturday. On September 1st she was ex- 
ceedingly feeble, and she had neither spasms nor trances 
during the night. She appeared exceedingly weak until 
Sunday morning, then she rallied. She remained quite com- 
fortable during Sunday, but was very weak in the evening ; 
spasms and trances returned, and she had fainting spells 
and great trouble with her heart action. On November 3d 
she was still very feeble during the day, lying in a fainting 
condition until night. On Tuesday, 4th, she rallied 
again, and remained quite feeble during the day ; then she 
had severe spasms which lasted from thirty to forty min- 
utes, and were followed by a trance. On Wednesday, 



4^ THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

5th, she was quite cheerful during the day, having 
spasms and trances during the night, remaining in about 
the same condition until Saturday, the 8th, when she 
appeared very feeble again, and complained of terrible 
pains around her head, remaining in about the same con- 
dition until Sunday morning, having spasms and short 
trances during the night. Monday, September ioth, she 
was quite comfortable again, and continued so during the 
day ; at night she had very hard spasms which lasted about 
an hour, and were followed by a short trance. Tuesday, 
nth, she was suffering greatly with her head and teeth, 
and was very absent-minded in the evening ; she had 
spasms lasting an hour, and was very restless during the 
night. On Wednesday, 12th, she was apparently more 
comfortable, yet went into an absent-minded state, which 
lasted until four o'clock in the afternoon ; then she com- 
plained of severe suffering in her head, and she had 
spasms and trances at night. On Thursday she was very 
feeble, complained of her head and teeth, and had severe 
spasms, followed by trances at night. On Friday evening, 
September 14th, she had severe spasms, her body being 
contracted into various forms, presenting a horrible 
sight. Her lower limbs were twisted (in a three-twist), 
and her feet crossed ; she remained in this condition until 
Sunday, 16th ; on that day she suffered intensely with her 
teeth and head, having hard spasms and trances during 
the night ; her throat being closed, ©n Monday, 17th, 
she w T as more comfortable during the day, but had severe 
spasms followed by trances at night, and she remained in 
about the same condition until Wednesday, 19th, on which 
day she had severe spasms and short trances, suffering 
severely with her head and teeth. On Thursday, 20th, 
she took chloroform to relax her jaws so that some of her 
teeth could be extracted. She then went into hard 
spasms, her body being horribly contracted, taking vari- 



I III. LIFE Of MOM.IK 1 ANCHKK. 4J 

o '.is forms; which continued from two to three hours. 
She then fell into a relaxed state, apparently having the 
power of feeling, and being able to recognize by the 
sense of touch ; she remained in that state until the 
evening of the 23d ; her power of speech returning on 
that day, and continued from Thursday evening at seven- 
thirty, until four o'clock P. M. Sunday, when her speech 
failed again. At times she seemed conscious, but could 
neither see, hear nor recognize in any way. On Monday, 
24th, she was in comparatively the same condition during 
the day, but in the evening her breathing being very diffi- 
cult. On Tuesday, 25th, she was still unconscious, in 
which condition she continued until Wednesday, 26th ; in 
the evening of that day, she appeared to be in a fainting 
condition, which lasted from nine o'clock in the evening 
until the following morning, when she rallied and was in 
a semi-conscious condition, but still unable to recognize 
any one. 

" On Thursday, 27th, she appeared in almost a lifeless 
condition ; her body was cold, she had chills during the 
day, and her breath was scarcely perceptible. On Friday 
morning she showed more .symptoms of life, but her body 
was cold ; she was suffering from chills and remained so 
until noon, when her circulation appeared to improve, 
and the lower part of her body became warm. On Satur- 
day, 29th, she rallied somewhat, but was still unable to 
recognize any one in any manner whatever. In the even- 
ing her breathing became very hard ; she was in great 
distress, and she suffered from spasms in her throat, which 
lasted about three hours, then she went into a sinking 
condition, as though her natural powers were exhausted. 
She remained so until nine o'clock the following morning, 
then she rallied and showed more signs of life, still re- 
maining very feeble. On Monday morning, October 1st, 
she rallied, but was still very weak ; she was able to recog- 



44 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

nize ; the power of seeing, hearing and feeling returned ; 
she remained very feeble during the night. (Miss Crosby 
speaks of her power of seeing having returned, but the 
reader must not understand that by using the word 
" seeing," Miss Crosby intends to convey the idea that 
Miss Fancher was able to see by the use of the natural 
organs of sight ; as Miss Crosby has frequently informed 
me that from the time Miss Fancher lost her natural 
sight it never returned to her again, but she saw clair- 
voyantly, having the power of her spiritual vision.) 

" On Tuesday, October 2d, she was again comfortable, 
which continued during Wednesday, 3d. On Thursday, 
4th, she suffered severely with her head and heart. She 
had,neither spasms nor trances. On Friday, 5th, she was 
very feeble and was in an absent-minded state for a long 
time ; she then went into a short trance ; during all the 
night she suffered severely with her head and was very 
restless. On Saturday, 6th, she continued exceedingly 
feeble, much of the time in an absent-minded condition ; 
she had three trances at night. On Sunday, 7th, she was 
more comfortable during the day, but very restless at 
night ; she had no spasms at night. On Monday, 8th, she 
was quite comfortable until evening ; she then suffered 
severely with her head. On Tuesday, 9th, she suffered 
with her head and heart; she had short trances during 
the night ; she then went into an absent-minded state and 
remained in the same condition until Sunday, 14th, when 
she was more comfortable ; she had no spasms, but had 
short trances day and night, and suffered with her head 
and heart, which continued from Monday up to Tuesday 
morning, the 10th ; she continued in about the same condi- 
tion, still living without any nourishment, and remained 
in this condition from day to day, suffering with pains in 
her head and heart. For the first time since September 
20th her left arm and hand, stomach and neck contracted, 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 45 

becoming distorted, and she remained apparently very 
feeble until Wednesday, 24th, on which day she had spasms 
in her throat and in her hand. On Thursday, 25th, she 
had spasms in her throat in the morning, also in her arm, 
lasting an hour ; she then suffered severely with her head 
and went into an unconscious condition, in which she re- 
mained most of the day. On Friday, 26th, she was more 
comfortable during the day ; in the evening she had 
spasms in her throat, stomach and chest, and suffered 
severely with pains in her head. She had spasms and 
short trances during the night. On Saturday, 27th, she 
continued about the same up to Monday, 29th, on which 
day she had spasms as on the 26th, and she still continues 
to live without nourishment." 

This closes the diary kept by Miss Crosby in so far as 
I have been able to place the same in chronological order. 
I will state, however, before inserting the additional facts, 
that she informed me that she kept this record, at the 
request of Miss Fancher's physician, in order that a 
correct statement of her condition, as her case developed 
from day to day, might be preserved. I have refrained 
from using, in a few instances, her exact language, which 
was very essential for the information of her physi- 
cian, but which may very properly be omitted from the 
recital. 



4-6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Continuation from Records. 

" On the 4th of April, 1866, her throat closed, and on 
the 6th commenced nourishing her by means of enema, 
which was continued for six weeks. After the 31st. of 
May, she was unable to retain them, and they were dis- 
continued. During this time the natural functions of 
relief were seldom exercised. 

"May 28th. Very feeble, suffering intensely with her 
head and heart ; at two o'clock P. M. went into a rigid 
state, lasting from one to two hours ; then into a trance, 
being quite rigid, and remained so until eleven-thirty 
A. M. the next day, when she fell off into relax trances, 
remaining so until Friday evening, June 1st ; on that 
evening at eight o'clock she rallied with effort ; breath 
almost gone ; apparently exhausted. She remained in 
this state until the following morning. During the days 
she was in this trance, she was nourished with enema 
four times. 

" On June 2d gave her chloroform to relax her jaws 
in order to give her some nourishment. Shortly after 
she went into very severe spasms which lasted for two 
hours ; she then went into an unconscious state for a short 
time, when she became sick, and was unable to retain any 
nourishment ; suffered intensely until Saturday, June 9th, 
when her throat closed, and she was unable to take any 
nourishment. From May 31st to June 28th she was 
unable to take any nourishment in any way. One pint of 
sweet oil was used to bathe her chest and bowels between 
June 2d and June 24th. From May 25th to June 28th the 
natural functions of nature for relief were very seldom 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 47 

exercised. On August 5th gave her chloroform to relax 
her jaws in order to extract her teeth, when her muscles 
relaxed and the natural functions of nature were exercised. 
Since the 6th day of August the natural functions of the 
body for relief have not been exercised (a period of three 
months). She now remains in this condition ; her eyes, 
jaws and hands are closed, her right arm drawn up at the 
back of her head, her lower limbs are twisted in a three- 
twist, having the use of one part of her left arm and 
hand, also the fingers of the hand being closed ; the only 
nourishment she has retained on her stomach from April 
4th, 1886, to October 27th, has been four teaspoonfuls of 
milk punch, two of wine, one small piece of banana and a 
small piece of cracker." 

On a separate sheet of paper, accompanying the fore- 
going record of Miss Crosby's, is the following : 

" Some of the remarkable things which she, Miss 
Fancher, has done during her sickness are as follows : 
She could tell the exact time by simply passing her hand 
over the crystal of the watch ; also tell the exact time 
across the room ; she could tell the approach of a thunder 
storm some hours before it came ; she could also tell the 
fire bells were going to ring sometimes as much as five- 
minutes before they really did ring. She has very often 
told what parties were doing over in New York, and even 
further away, and has always been correct in her state- 
ments. Persons ringing the door bell at the house, she 
could recognize before they entered the house. Often in 
her absent-minded state she would mimic different things 
and all sorts of characters, sometimes by singing. She 
once "took off " a wedding party, including the dancing, 
talking, bowing, shaking of hands, eating and drinking, 
which were done very naturally indeed. 

" She once was hunting and calling her dog, and load- 
ing her gun, and taking her swig pf whiskey, all of which 



48 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

was done to perfection. She has also done many hand- 
some pieces of embroidery and other work." 

It is to be exceedingly regretted that Miss Crosby 
omitted from her records detailed statements of the 
wonderful powers that Miss Fancher possesses, and of the 
remarkable things which she does by their use. She has 
detailed only in a general way, in her own handwriting, 
some of the interesting facts connected with the case, 
showing the powers Miss Fancher possessed, which have 
occurred from time to time during the long years of her 
illness. She has stated, however, to a very large number 
of persons, and among others to me, in more explicit 
language, some of the remarkable things which Miss 
Fancher has done, and they, we are told, are only as two 
in a thousand. We shall perhaps, later on, refer to what 
may have been the cause, which prevented a detailed 
statement of the facts connected with these interesting 
features of her case. 

It will be noted that Miss Crosby speaks of Miss 
Fancher being " in an absent-minded state," quite fre- 
quently, during the period covered by her records. She 
has said that in this absent-minded state, Miss Fancher 
appeared to be conscious of the presence of those not 
visible to the eyes of others on this plane of life, and also 
of brighter scenes, which so impressed the poor pain- 
stricken girl, that she wept in disappointment when 
brought back to a realization that she could not remain 
in the sphere into which she was spiritually permitted to 
enter, and for a brief period be a partaker with her mother 
and friends, in the joys and pleasures which were theirs. 
At times she was talking with them, and seemed fully 
conscious of their presence ; and that they were really 
visible to her, and held communication with her, cannot 
be denied, without impairing our faith in the recorded 
instances of a similar, kind in that Book, which is 



THE LIKE OF MOLLIE l-'ANCHER. 49 

regarded as the most sacred of all throughout the 
Christian world. 

Having said this much with reference to some of the 
phases of her case, what disposition shall be made of, or 
inferences drawn from the personating of characters? 
for this has been of frequent occurrence, as I am in- 
formed, by Miss Fancher and her friends, for a long time, 
some instances of which Miss Crosby has mentioned above. 
When we consider the terrible physical condition that 
this poor girl was in ; when we call to mind these terrible 
spasms, by which various portions of her body were 
moved with incredible force, her neck and throat in a 
rigid condition, and with this, her right arm drawn over 
her head, her hands rigidly closed, her lower limbs twisted 
in a three-twist, which, as any person must know, is im- 
possible without pulling asunder of the very joints ; that 
she has been bent like a hoop for hours, her head and 
heels meeting, and then her toes drawn up to her head ; 
that she was thrown, plunging, like an arrow from the 
bed — what person, in view of this state of facts, can for 
one moment conceive of her resorting to any trick or 
device, or simulation, to produce these conditions ? 

Were I to continue the records kept by Miss Crosby 
of Miss Fancher's condition from month to month, and 
from year to year,, as she has noted the same down, it 
would be uninteresting to the reader, and of but little 
benefit to even medical men. There is so much repetition 
arising from a description of continuing symptoms for a 
very long period of time, that only matters of special in- 
terest will be mentioned. 

In several places Miss Crosby notes great suffering to 
Miss Fancher from the shock of thunder storms, throwing 
her into severe spasms. She notes one instance in July, 
when an effort was made to relieve her sufferings by put- 
ting her upon a water bed. The change at once gave her 
4 



50 THE LIFE OF M0LL1E FANCHER. 

a severe shock, throwing her into spasms, which lasted for 
a considerable time. This was on the ist of July. On the 
4th of July she received very severe shocks from the firing 
of a cannon, and from the explosion of firearms near her 
house. A pistol was fired in the street, under her window ; 
she was thrown into a rigid condition, and bent in the 
form of a hoop backwards, her limbs still being twisted, 
in which condition she remained from five to ten minutes. 

On September 20th Miss Crosby make the following 
note : 

" During the day she was quite comfortable, but in the 
evening had bad spasms in her head, throat, eyelids, and 
also in her jaw, and her right hand was constantly twitch- 
ing, which was continued for three days. On September 
21st she was able to articulate sounds, and take a little 
nourishment. She then went into severe spasms, affect" 
ing every part of her body, which was thrown into various 
forms. She notes that on the 28th day of February, 
probably 1868, the year not being given, Miss Fancher 
was given some chloroform, and instead of going into con- 
vulsions, she went into a trance, and was in a perfect 
state of ecstasy, during which time she was conversing 
with her mother in heaven ; her eyelids relaxed, her 
power of speech returned, and she claimed that she was 
having a delightful visit with her mother in heaven, in 
which condition she remained for two hours." 

These records show that Miss Fancher was in, what 
Miss Crosby styles, an absent-minded condition, for the 
period of an hour or more very frequently. In one in- 
stance she mentions the fact that Miss Fancher seemed 
very much exercised over the presence of her mother, or 
that she was in some way holding converse with her 
mother. 

Miss Crosby makes frequent mention of Miss Fan- 
cher's possessing unnatural strength. That she received 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 5 I 

a supply of strength from some source, unknown to her 
attendants, seems very certain ; for how, otherwise, couid 
life have been maintained for so long a period ? Occasion- 
ally she expectorated blood, apparently from her lungs, 
which certainly would greatly weaken her. How it was pos- 
sible to maintain life for several years during the time her 
sufferings were so great, and the nourishment she received 
was so very small, is very mysterious. Upon one or two 
occasions, when they were attempting to force nourish- 
ment upon her, which her stomach rejected, and which 
occasioned her great distress, in reply to Miss Crosby's 
remark that it was necessary she should receive it to 
maintain life, she is said to have replied that she received 
nourishment from a source of which Miss Crosby was 
ignorant. 

Some persons, will undoubtedly discredit the possi- 
bility of her having received any nourishment from in- 
visible hands or sources, while others will believe that 
Miss Fancher stated what was the truth. Those who 
have studied such cases from a high spiritual standpoint, 
will readily believe that many persons w T ho are suffering, 
and are in great distress, are often relieved and succored 
by help from on high. This leads us to a more complete 
consideration of some of the remarkable things which 
Miss Fancher did, and is from time to time now doing, 
during her long illness, of which brief mention is made 
by Miss Crosby. 

An erroneous impression has been conveyed to the 
public, through misstatements concerning the exercise of 
Miss Fancher's powers, many persons supposing that she 
at any and all times is capable of seeing beyond her 
room and immediate surroundings, and is able to describe 
what is transpiring in remote places. This is not the fact. 
She is in a peculiar state when she is able to see beyond 
the walls of the room in which she is lying ; and yet she 



5 2 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

is very frequently in that condition. When in that con- 
dition she usually is not holding conversation with friends 
present in the room, but seems to be in a sort of trance 
condition, in which, if her spirit does not leave her body, 
it certainly looks out beyond the material surroundings, 
which shut off the vision of others, and she goes to her 
friends in different places, and notes what they are doing. 
She looks around the city and sees what is transpiring, 
and still comes back to herself and repeats where she has 
been and what she has seen. 

As illustrative, and in proof of this, I will here give 
an incident within my own knowledge, which is worthy of 
record. 

Some four years ago I called upon her, and during 
my visit she informed me that on a certain night, which 
she mentioned, she had been at my house, and had seen 
me, and noted what I was doing; and described my being 
present, at about eleven o'clock at night, with a tall gen- 
tleman, of thin, spare form, and of dark complexion ; 
and she asked me to go back and locate myself at that 
time. After considerable trouble I succeeded in doing 
so, and informed her that I had received a visit from a 
friend from the country, and at that time was in his 
chamber, having a few moments' chat with him previous 
to his retiring. It so happened that Miss Fancher had 
related what she had seen to Mr. Sargent, who happened 
to be present at the time I called, and who corroborated 
her statement. Miss Fancher certainly had no means of 
knowing, that I can conceive of, where I was at that time, 
nor of the presence of the friend at my house. Now, a 
remarkable feature of this case is to follow. 

During the winter of 1882 this gentleman, who is the 
Hon. H. D. Sisson, of New Marlboro, Mass., with his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Blodgett, called upon me one evening, 
and I invited them to accompany me to Miss Fancher's 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 53 

home, which they did. Upon entering the room, I asked 
Miss Fancher if she had ever seen either of the gentlemen 
before. " Why, no," said she ; " they have never been here 
before ; " then she exclaimed : " Oh, yes, this is the man I 
saw at your house" (pointing to Mr. Sisson) "that 
night. He has changed some, but he is the man." 

Mr. Thomas Townsend, of New York City, who, as well 
as his wife, is a near and dear friend of Miss Fancher's, 
and who has witnessed numerous instances of the exercise 
of her remarkable powers, makes mention to me of 
the following amusing incident, which will interest the 
reader : 

It is not an uncommon thing for Miss Fancher's 
friends to joke and laugh with her about her numerous 
admirers, and inquire about all her beaus, and say many 
ridiculous things, by way of amusement, and receive rallies 
in return, for Miss Fancher is an exceedingly witty and 
keen-spoken lady. 

Mrs. Townsend, the wife of the gentleman in question, 
was at the time visiting Miss Fancher, and Mr. Townsend 
was coming from his office in New York, across the Wall 
Street Ferry, to meet his wife there. Miss Fancher dropped 
into a trance, and while in the trance Mrs. Townsend had 
observed a smile to pass over her face as though she was 
observing something that amused her. Upon coming out 
of that condition, she asked M^iss Fancher where she had 
been, and what she had seen ? Miss Fancher burst out 
laughing, but would not tell. In a short time Mr. Town- 
send put in an appearance, and soon after began to rally 
Miss Fancher, and asked her numerous questions, when 
suddenly, to his surprise, she turned upon him and said : 
"See here, old fellow, be very careful ; that was a very 
pretty young lady that you was escorting across the ferry, 
and you seemed to be very much interested in her." It 
was now Mr. Towsend's turn to blush, and he owned up 



54 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

that he came across the ferry with a young lady of his 
acquaintance, and was having a very interesting chat with 
her, when, of course, without his knowledge, Miss Fancher 
had approached ; but how, or in what way, the reader 
must determine for himself. She saw Mr. Townsend, and 
was able to describe the young lady, much to his surprise 
and astonishment. In this way she has visited the homes 
of friends, and, as will be related by Mr. Sargent, she has 
been to him when he has been nearly a thousand miles 
away, and described his surroundings and the persons 
present so minutely, in advance of any statement from 
him, that to doubt her powers would be absurd. Many 
and severe tests have been made to determine the fact of 
her clairvoyance, and I am not aware that any person who 
has made the test, has any doubt that she possesses that 
very interesting and remarkable gift. Miss Fancher's 
eyes are usually closed, but at the same time it is the 
belief of some friends, as well as my own, that the optic 
nerve is not wholly destroyed, but is paralyzed, because 
she is sensitive to the light; a strong light is exceedingly 
painful to her. She sees best in a darkened room, and the 
light from a remote gas jet is always shaded, as well as 
turned down, so that it will not be thrown upon her 
face. 

Not long since, while discussing the condition of her 
eyes with Mr. Sargent in the presence of Miss Fancher, 
he expressed the opinion that she in some way, but just 
how he did not know, could see by means of her organs of 
sight. I was very much astonished, and asked him if 
he had made no test to determine that question, and was 
still more surprised when he told me he had not. I 
immediately arose, and securely covered her eyes by plac- 
ing a double handkerchief over them and covering the 
lower part of her face, as she lay upon her bed. There 
was not a movement that any of us could make, or a thing 



The life of mollie fancher. 55 

which we could do, which she could not distinctly describe 
to us, with as much readiness as either of us could have 
done, had the same been done before our eyes. So many 
rigid tests have been made of Miss Fancher's powers 
in this direction, that human testimony fails in its purpose, 
if it is not believed that Miss Fancher is at times more or 
less clairvoyant. She is much more clairvoyant at some 
times than at others. When the day is gloomy and dark, 
or great storms are about approaching, the atmospheric 
conditions appear to affect her very sensibly, and then her 
clairvoyant sight is very much impaired. She sees best, 
and reads the most readily, when the room is so dark that 
others can scarcely see the print. The most hardened 
skeptics in these matters have been compelled to suc- 
cumb when in the presence of Miss Fancher. 

The question has arisen, and. will naturally be sug- 
gested, how does Miss Fancher see beyond the walls of 
her room, by which she is environed ? How can she see 
and describe people who are in the street, and are ringing 
the bell at her door ? Certainly no human vision, such as 
is ordinarily exercised, can penetrate through the walls of 
her dwelling house, and see down through the floors com- 
posed of wood and brick and mortar ? Is it by spiritual 
sight ? Does her spirit, while still retaining sufficient 
relation to the body to maintain its seat and hold upon the 
material forms, pass out through this to other material 
substances, and, by the use of her spiritual vision, discern 
what is transpiring? The affirmative would certainly 
seem the only answer that can be made, unless we resort 
to the theory, that has come to be with a certain class of 
people a hobby, that it is done by the means of mind 
reading. But the question will naturally arise, what mind 
reading could there be in her seeing and describing persons 
who are entire strangers to her, and who have not her 
in mind, and of whom she has never heard ? 



56 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Mr. Sberk has mentioned an interesting incident which 
is herewith recorded, to which reference may now prop- 
erly be made in considering this suggestion. 

He sent a man in his employ to Miss Fancher's house, 
describing it, and telling him to ascend one flight of 
stairs, to go to the front room, and there hang a certain 
picture, which he took with him. He proceeded to the 
place, entered the room, and commenced sounding the 
wall for a joist into which a nail could be securely driven. 
While so engaged he heard a voice criticising the manner 
in which he was doing the work. He looked around him 
and saw no one in the room, and supposed himself to be 
quite alone. He was somewhat nervous, and proceeded 
with his work, when he was again criticised by an un- 
known voice, from whence he could not see, telling him 
that he had not put the picture in the centre, and again 
that it was not hung true. He became frightened and 
hastily finished his work and left the house, and informed 
Mr. Sherk that he did not like to be sent to places w T here 
he could hear voices without seeing the person speaking. 
As a matter of fact, Miss Fancher was on her bed in the 
back room, which was closed by sliding doors from [he 
front room, and by her clairvoyant sight she was able to 
discern w T hat the gentleman was doing, and to speak loud 
enough to be heard through the walls, in criticising the 
work of the poor fellow, who w T as frightened out of his 
wits. 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 57 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Of Miss Fancher's Condition, and of the Trance. 

We have now reached a point in the recital of the 
events in the life of Miss Fancher, when the reader should 
be informed of some features of her present physical 
condition, and of some of the peculiar phases of her case, 
to properly understand what has already been related, 
and what remains to be written. We have already given 
her statement of the facts leading up to the long trance, 
as she terms it, when she lost out of her life all recollec- 
tion of what transpired for a period of nine years ; and 
how, when she awoke to consciousness, to her, it was as 
from the sleep of a single night, and in memory she com- 
menced her life again where she had left it nine years 
before. 

Mention has been made of the rigid condition of her 
right arm during that nine years, it being carried upwards 
and under the back of her head ; and of her rigidly closed 
hands, excepting the thumbs and a portion of the index 
fingers. The position and condition of her lower limbs 
should be more minutely described. They are said to 
have been twisted around each other, like the strands of 
a rope, and to have remained so for nine years. This cer- 
tainly will seem to most persons as absolutely incredible 
and impossible, unless done by the application of some 
instrument of torture. I cannot vouch for the truth of 
this statement from personal knowledge, but that it is 
literally true I firmly believe, and shall give my reasons 
and authority. Aside from the testimony of others, I can 
say of my own knowledge that the joints of her limbs are 
apparently drawn asunder, leaving spaces in the joints 



5<S THE LIFE OF MOLLlE EANCHER. 

into which a finger may be easily pressed, showing the 
bones to be separated. The ankle joint is drawn apart, 
and the small bones of the foot seem to be separated ; as 
is plainly seen by examining the instep. The sole of the 
foot is turned upwards in such a manner as to show a dis- 
jointing of the ankle ; and I am assured that the heads of 
the thigh bones are apparently drawn from their sockets, 
and imbedded in her groins. Her lower limbs are drawn 
somewhat upwards, and the cords under her knees are 
hard and seemingly as unyielding as steel. All of these 
conditions have been produced by spasmodic action. At 
present when in her spasmodic conditions, a guard around 
her bed is necessary to prevent her from being thrown to 
the floor, which, unfortunately, has occurred upon several 
occasions, despite these and other precautions ; and such 
safeguards have been necessary since she was first taken 
with spasmodic action, nearly twenty-eight years ago. 
The character of these spasmodic actions is beyond 
simulation or imitation. At times it is most marked in 
some portion of her body, where natural muscular action 
is impossible. It is rapid, violent and frequently con- 
tinues for a considerable time. It agitates her bed, and at 
times the floor of her room. Her heart spasms are of a 
character to appall those not familiar with her case. 
That death does not immediately ensue is astonishing. 
At present, her body is heavy and flesh soft. About 
seven years ago she was thrown in her spasms from her 
bed and struck upon the back of her head, nearly dislocat- 
ing her neck. This misfortune has greatly increased her 
sufferings. Following this last accident there is on the 
back of the neck something of an enlargement like a 
swelling, which seems permanent in character. She suf- 
fers severe pains in and around the heart, and also she 
has pains in her head. When spasmodic heart actions are 
most severe, large, dark rings, presenting the appearance 



THE LIFK OF M-Ol.LIK FANCHER. 59 

of the settling of blood after a severe blow, are around 
her eyes. These marks disappear when she recovers from 
one of her severe attacks. 

It may, I think, truthfully be said, that Mollie Fancher 
never sleeps, in the sense that others do. Sleep is a 
natural requirement. It is asserted by many, and, I think, 
quite commonly believed, that the mind is never at perfect 
rest. Every part of our bodies requires rest, unless it be 
the heart and respiratory organs, which keep up sufficient 
action to maintain life. Sleep brings many required 
changes, and it is impossible that Miss Fancher should 
have lived all these years without it, unless in some other 
manner the required rest has come to her. In her own 
recitals of the efforts of her physician to break her trances 
and spasms, she has stated that he was pardonably igno- 
rant of the part they served in her changed condition of 
life ; that without them she would have died. They 
afforded her a required rest ; and yet they are most unlike 
a natural sleep. No person would naturally suppose, that 
any rest could come to either mind or body during the 
period caused by such spasms as has been described. 
But ordinarily she is unconscious when in that condition. 
When that condition is preceded or followed by a trance, 
and when in the trance state, to most persons she would 
seem to be in a condition akin to a deep sleep. Most 
likely this is in a degree a correct conclusion. How it is 
distinguished from sleep will be now explained. 

The Trance. 

Considerable mention has already been made, and more 
will necessarily be required of Miss Fancher's supposed 
or actual condition of Trance. The reader must form his 
own conclusions as to what her conditions actually are 
Before more fully describing her symptoms and experiences 



6o THE LIFE OF MOLLiE FANCHER. 

while in the trance condition, it may be well to define what 
a trance is usually supposed to be. 

Webster gives among others the following definitions 
of the word trance : 

2. A state in w T hich the soul seems to have passed out 
of the body into another state of being, or to be wrapped 
into visions; an ecstasy. 

3. (In Medicine.) The total suspension of mental 
power and voluntary motion, pulsation and breathing con- 
tinuing, the muscles being flexible, and body yielding to 
and retaining any given position not incompatible with 
the laws of gravitation ; catalepsy. 

The Old and New Testament both contain statements 
of what different persons are said to have seen and heard 
while entranced. In the 10th and nth chapters of Acts 
are recounted the vision of Peter when he fell into a trance. 
At the conversion of Paul he saw a great light and fell to 
the ground and he heard a voice speaking to him. He 
says that those with him heard the voice but saw no man 
(Acts, 9th chapter). In II. Corinthians, nth chapter, 
Paul recounts, whether of himself or of another he leaves 
us to infer for ourselves, but evidently his own experiences, 
and says : 

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago 
(whether in the body, I cannot tell ; or whether out of the 
body I cannot tell ; God knoweth) such a one caught up 
to the third heaven. 

" And I knew such a man (whether in the body or out 
of the body I cannot tell ; God knoweth). 

" How he was caught up into Paradise, and heard un- 
speakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." 
In the following verse he explains, that his reasons for 
not saying it was he who saw the vision and was thus en- 
tranced, are that others might think he was above what 
he seemed to be. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 6 1 

Preceding the recital of his wonderful vision on Patmos, 
John describes himself as being in the spirit on the Lord's 
day, and he heard behind him a great voice as of a trum- 
pet, and that when he turned his head what he saw caused 
him to fall as one dead. (Rev., ist ch.) After he has re- 
cited his vision, he closes in chapter 22d, v. 8-9, by saying : 

" I John saw these things and heard them. And when 
I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the 
feet of the angel that showed me these things. 

" Then saith he unto me, see thou do it not ; for I am 
thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and 
of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship God." 

The prophet Joel, nth chapter, 28th and 29th verses, 
says : 

"And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour 
out my spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, 
and your young men shall see visions: 

"And also upon the servants and upon the hand-maids 
in those days will I pour out my spirit." 

See also Acts, nth chapter, 14th to 22d verses. 

Trance conditions are of rare occurrence and mostly 
are confined to persons in delicate conditions of health, 
unless superinduced by effort in the individual. Trance 
conditions have occurred, if history can be relied upon, in 
all ages of which we have present knowledge, through his- 
torical data. Emanuel Swedenborg claimed to have had 
visions, and to have heard the voices of angels and spirits 
who directed him in his writings. The same may be said 
of Mahomet. That the prophets spoken of in the Scrip- 
tures were accustomed to preparing the way for entrance- 
ment and visions is certain. Daniel says, "And I set my 
face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, 
with fastings and sack-cloth and ashes." Daniel, nth 
chapter, 3d verse, 



62 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

" Now as he was speaking with me I was in a deep 
sleep on my face towards the ground ; but he touched me 
and set me upright." Daniel, 8th chapter, 18th verse. 

" In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full 
weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor 
wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till 
three whole weeks were fulfilled." Daniel, ioth chapter, 2d, 
3d and 4th verses. Then follows Daniel's description of 
the great vision which was presented to him. In the 7th 
verse he says: 

"And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision: for the men that 
were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell 
upon them, so they fled and hid themselves." In the 9th 
verse he says: "Yet heard I the voice of his words: and 
when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep 
sleep on my face, and my face towards the ground." 

It will likely be possible for some w r ho will read this 
book, to recall the effect produced upon certain religious 
persons, with nervous temperaments, by the revivals 
among the Methodists, many years ago. It was not an 
uncommon thing to see amid the fervent prayers and 
shoutings, one or more persons throw up their arms and 
fall back in apparently unconscious conditions, and so re- 
main for quite a time. They w r ere described as being in 
a trance. What they claimed to have experienced while 
in those conditions, I never fully understood. That they 
were in a state of great ecstasy is quite certain, and their 
condition would seem to have been produced from excite- 
ment, rather than from the conditions which preceded the 
entrancement of the different persons mentioned in the 
Scriptures. Some of the readers of these pages may feel 
that the Scriptural quotations might have been omitted. 
The feelings of all persons in religious matters are entitled 
to respect, and the quotations are not made with a view of 
unduly exalting the condition of Miss Fancher, or her 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 6$ 

visions in the mind of the reader. They have been made 
for the purpose of more fully explaining to what the word 
"Trance," may correctly be applied. 

It is quite common now among a certain class of relig- 
ious persons, to speak of a person being entranced of a 
spirit, which is understood to represent the person as 
having his mental and perhaps his physical powers, sub- 
ordinated to the will and control of a spirit or an angel. 
The exercise of functions or the enunciation of thoughts 
beyond the normal power of the individual, is in the New 
Testament mentioned, as the possession or exercise of 
spiritual gifts. See the 12th, 13th and 14th chapters of 
1st Cor., 1st John (Epistle), chapter IV. 

In the olden time, prophets were called seers. In these 
days a seer is called a person possessing the power or 
gift of second sight ; more commonly now called clairvoy- 
ance, or clear sightedness. A person who possesses the gift 
of hearing what others in their normal condition do not 
hear, is said to be clairaudient. 

Mention is made of the meaning of these terms for the 
benefit of the few who possibly may not be familiar with 
them. Keeping these things in mind, the readers will be 
able to draw their own conclusions as to the nature and 
character of some of the remarkable powers exercised by 
Mollie Fancher. 



64 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER IX. 



"One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." — 
John ix : 25. 

Who Am I? 

Before going further into the details of some of the re- 
markable features of Miss Fancher's case, it will be neces- 
sary to state, and to have it borne in mind, that about a 
week preceding the first day of June, 1866, Miss Fancher 
went into a trance, and that of what transpired during 
that week she has no recollection whatever. That upon 
coming out of the trance on the first Sunday in June, she 
found a few persons in her room — Dr. Robert Spier, and 
other friends and relatives who were interested in her 
case, and were exercised over her condition. Dr. Robert 
Spier remarked to her, taking out his watch, "When I 
come here I always remain longer than I intend. I was 
to be home to-day at one o'clock to my dinner; we were 
to have a chicken pot-pie, and you know that is never 
good when cold." The next day Miss Fancher went into 
another trance, and from that day for nine years next follow- 
ing, she has no recollection whatever of anything that oc- 
curred, or anything that she said or did. During that period 
her right arm was up in a rigid condition back of her 
head, the fingers of both her right and left hand were 
rigidly closed. She had the use of her left arm. During 
those nine years she had spasms and trances; sometimes 
her eyes were turned upward and backward in her head, 
but always remained sightless. During those nine years, 
as I am informed from unquestionable authority, she 
wrote upwards of six thousand five hundred letters, 
worked up one hundred thousand ounces of worsted, did 



THE LIFE OK MOLLIE FANCHER. 65 

a vast amount of fine embroidery, and a great deal of very 
beautiful wax work, cutting and coloring the flowers and 
leaves in the most ingenious and perfect manner. When 
the use of her two hands was required, the work was 
done above her head, her left hand being carried up to meet 
the position of her right-hand as described. Her writing 
was done by inserting a pencil or pen in between the closed 
fingers of her left hand in the palm, so that the pencil or 
pen was held in her fist. Her handwriting was very reg- 
ular and beautiful, her powers of composition very supe- 
rior. She made numerous acquaintances during that time, 
as her room was constantly beset by strangers from all 
parts of the country, anxious to see and converse with her. 

The newspapers, in the meantime, had published ex- 
tensive accounts of the remarkable features of her case, 
several of the most complete and reliable of which will 
be incorporated in this volume, and are vouched for as 
being correct by persons familiar with the facts. 

At the end of nine years, she went into a trance last- 
ing one month, at the end of which time her right arm 
relaxed from its rigid condition, her hands opened, her 
limbs untwisted, and coming to consciousness, she looked 
around her room. Observing Dr. S. Fleet Spier, the 
brother of Dr. Robert Spier, present in her room, she ex- 
claimed, " Well, Doctor, did your brother get home in 
time for his chicken pot-pie?" She then looked around 
her room, and found it in -appearance somewhat changed. 
She looked at her aunt, Miss Crosby, and exclaimed, 
"Why, Aunt ! What has become of your red cheeks ? you 
look so old and changed." Her brother, who was a lad of 
thirteen at the time that she lost consciousness nine years 
before, approached the bedside. He was immediately 
repelled as being too familiar for a stranger ; and when 
she was told that he was her brother, she could not be- 
lieve that a boy could so change in what seemed to her 
5 



66 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

but a moment of time — to a man wearing a mustache. 
Hundreds of people who had made her acquaintance dur- 
ing those nine years, she failed to recognize, and they 
had to be introduced to her, and make her acquaintance 
in a formal manner. She burst into tears when realizing 
that she had been nine years in a sleep, to awake in such 
changed conditions. When told of what she had done, 
and shown the work of her own hands, she could not be- 
lieve what was said, nor recognize the work. She was 
shown a diary which she had kept during that time, and 
by this diary she was forced to believe what was in her 
own writing, although it was very different from her pre- 
vious hand. She found by taking her pen in her left hand 
she could write readily and rapidly in the identical style 
of that contained in her diary, which, to her, was very 
conclusive that the diary must have been kept by herself. 
She says: " Strange thoughts came into my mind, and 
strange sensations came over me. When I looked upon 
the wax flowers, the work of my hands, I could not real- 
ize that they had been done by me. They were repugnant 
to me. The sensation that I experienced was that they 
were the work of one who was dead. I found I could not 
do some kinds of the work which I had done, without 
learning again how. I could not realize that so long a 
period had passed in my life, and that I was part of the 
same being who had done the work, made the acquaint- 
ances, and had the experiences covering those nine years. 
I was, and still am, an enigma' to myself. If anybody can 
tell who I am, and what I am, when they have heard of 
the remaining experiences and features of my life, I would 
be glad to have them do so. 

" I am told that there are five other Mollie Fanchers, 
who together, make the whole of the one Mollie Fancher, 
known to the world; who they are and what they are I 
cannot tell or explain, I can only conjecture. I go into 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 67 

trances and spasmodic conditions, sometimes during the 
day, but most usually about ten or eleven o'clock at night, 
and come out of them again, and am usually unconscious 
of what has passed, but sometimes realize and distinctly 
remember where I have been, who and what I have seen 
and observed. It seems to me, at times, that I go to 
various parts of the country or city, and see persons and 
places, and know what is transpiring; and whenever I do, 
and I take pains to find out from the persons whom I visit 
upon these occasions, whether they were at the places at 
which I saw them, and were doing the things which I saw 
them doing, if they are able to recall the circumstances 
at all, they invariably satisfy me that in some manner inex- 
plicable to me, I was either absent from the body and was 
with them, or was able to make my observations without 
the obstruction of material objects, unaffected by dis- 
tance. I have often been hundreds of miles away, in fact 
as far as Michigan, to observe the whereabouts of Mr. 
Sargent, my business associate and friend, and have seen 
and observed what he was doing, and when questioned by 
me upon his return, regarding the same, he has informed 
me that I have correctly stated where he was and what he 
was doing. However incredible these things may seem 
to others, inasmuch as I have hitherto refrained from 
making statements for the gratification of the public, I 
am urged by my friends, and am satisfied that it is my 
duty to make an impartial statement of my own experi- 
ences expressing no opinion whatever as to how they are 
occasioned, leaving that to be solved by others. 

" It has been charged and stated, that this publication 
is being prepared in the interest of what is commonly 
known as Spiritualism. Nothing could be further from 
the fact, in so far as I am concerned; and I believe the 
same to be true as regards others interested in this pub- 
lication. The work is being done in the interest of the 



68 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

medical and scientific world and at the earnest request of 
friends. I have been repeatedly asked to attempt to act 
the part of a medium for spirit communications, and I 
have invariably refused to attempt anything of the kind, 
because I have not, and do not consider myself capable 
of answering any such requirement; but shall I refuse to 
make truthful answers to the questions which are put to 
me by my biographer, as to whether I am conscious at 
any time of the presence of those of my friends and others 
who are said to be dead ? Would it be just and right for 
me to refuse to answer those questions ? It has already 
been stated by many of my friends, and it has .been pub- 
lished many years ago, broadcast to the world, that when 
I come out of my trances, I sometimes am grieved be- 
cause I have been taken away from brighter and better 
conditions in another world, than what I find in this. It 
has been said, as the public generally knows, that I fre- 
quently speak of having seen my mother and other friends 
around me who are dead. Then, in answer to these ques- 
tions, I frankly and truthfully say that at times, at least 
in spirit, away from the scenes of this world, I am with 
friends in most heavenly places. My consciousness of 
these things is to me, as real as the experiences of my life 
upon this earth. I often see my mother and other friends 
around me, and in my dreary days of sickness, pain and 
suffering, and when my spirit is depressed, I can hear her 
tender voice speaking to me words of cheer, bidding me 
'bear up, and be brave, and to endure.' Who upon this 
earth with body and limbs racked and disjointed by dis- 
ease, and most horribly contracted, and bedridden for up- 
wards of twenty-seven years, will not long to be released 
from pain and suffering, even though that relief is only 
to be found in utter annihilation ? Ten thousand times I 
would have accepted that alternative, to be relieved from 
my sufferings. At times I have seen around me, and 



MIR LIFE OF MOLT, IK FANCHER. 69 

around my friends who call to see me, the angel forms of 
those persons who are supposed to be dead. Whether I 
see what it seems to me I see, and hear what I seem to 
hear, let others form their own conclusions. I know what 
I see as well as they know what they see. 

" One by one my friends have gone, and what inroads 
have been made upon their number during those twenty- 
seven years, others can imagine. Those whom I have 
loved best, who have been near, kind and tender to me, have 
been mostly taken away; and when I am told that I ought 
to be pleased, in being conscious at times, of their spirit- 
ual presence, I have repeatedly said, that that is not all 
I want for in this world ; I want to feel the material 
touch of their hands, to hear their voices, and experience 
the impression of their kiss upon my lips as of yore. What- 
ever others may think and feel regarding these experiences, 
until I am released from the bonds that hold me in the 
flesh, it will always be a source of grief and sorrow, to 
lose out of my natural life those who are true and dear 
to me. 

" I have already spoken of other Mollie Fan.chers, who 
are said to be parts of the one Mollie Fancher known to 
the world. They are said to come one after another, 
mostly in the night time when I am unconscious. My 
biography covers my recollection and experiences from 
early childhood up to the present time, leaving out the 
nine years of which mention has already been made. I 
am said in the night time, when passing from the trance 
and spasmodic conditions, to come to consciousness and 
to speak and act differently from what I ordinarily do. I 
am said then to recollect only certain events of my life, 
and that during those times I see and speak only to 
those who may happen to be present with whom I am well 
acquainted. Then I am said to pass into another trance and 
spasmodic condition, and then to come to consciousness 



70 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

again, and then I appear and act like some other per- 
son, but still I am only conscious of certain events of my 
early life ; and so on. until four different changes occur, 
and in each instance, the Mollie Fancher who appears, re- 
members and is only conscious of the events of the life 
of the one Mollie Fancher. All these things I am told. 
I know nothing of them myself. When I come to con- 
sciousness, I have no recollection of any of these changes 
or personations, whatever they may be, of which I have 
been speaking. I am told that in none of these changes 
does any one of the so-called Mollie Fanchers, remember 
any of the events of the nine years of which I have spoken. 
My physician has said, in view of these changes and re- 
markable experiences, he would not be surprised if I, or a 
so-called Mollie Fancher, should wake to consciousness 
of the events of those nine years. At the end of those 
nine years I could use my left hand quite readily and per- 
haps more so than my right, and I customarily use my 
left hand in writing, a sample of which will accompany 
my biography. Those experiences which refer to the 
appearance of the other so-called Mollie Fanchers, have 
not been continuous during all my sickness. They first 
appeared soon after I came out of what I denominate 
my long trance, having met with a shock. After awhile 
they are said to have discontinued their appearances, 
but having received subsequent injuries by falls from 
my bed, they are said to have reappeared; and that about 
every night of my life, at the present time, I am sub- 
ject to the changes which will be more fully described 
by my biographer, and by others. 

" If anything occurs when I am unconscious, and one 
of the other, so to speak, Mollie Fanchers is conscious, 
which gives to her a shock, or creates sorrow, when I re- 
cover consciousness I feel the effects of it. I am strangely 
affected oy my bereavement or cause of grief. It seems to 
me as if my heart becomes suddenly enlarged, and my chest 



THE LIFE OF MOLT, IE FANCHER. 7 1 

over the left side is pressed upward so as to present a vis- 
ible change in appearance. I am sometimes affected by 
colors. Some are not so agreeable to me as others; I 
can distinguish them easily by passing my hand over 
them." 

For the purpose of distinguishing these different per- 
sonalities, or selves of Miss Fancher, they have been sev- 
erally named "Sunbeam," "Idol," "Rosebud," "Pearl" 
and " Ruby," and they usually appear in the order named. 
" Sunbeam " is the one we ordinarily recognize when we 
visit Miss Fancher. 



72 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER X. 



Interesting Facts from the Statements of Miss 
Fancher's Friends. 

Since the commencement of my task in writing the life 
of Miss Fancher, I have sought a most thorough knowl- 
edge of each peculiar feature of her case, and have found 
many difficulties, owing to the great lapse of time covered 
by her strange experiences. I saw the importance of a 
minute record of her life, a number of years ago, and I 
then suggested that one should be kept, and understood 
that the same was being done. I find, however, that some 
who have quite extensive minutes of what has taken place 
in her many years of sickness, are unwilling to furnish the 
same for the publication for Miss Fancher's benefit, and 
that the most important witness, Miss Crosby, has since 
died ; and I am left to the records of her case made by 
Miss Crosby, and the recollections of intimate friends for 
reliable facts. 

Among those possessing the most thorough knowledge 
of the features of her case, during the past seven years, is 
Mr. George F. Sargent, of the Geo. F. Sargent Com- 
pany, who is actively engaged in the manufacture of 
beds, chairs, and all other conceivable articles for the 
comfort and convenience of invalids, cripples and the de- 
formed. He tells me that he made his first call on the 21st 
of November, 1866, the expressed object of his visit being 
to have a conversation about the manufacture of furniture 
for invalids. I have taken down nearly verbatim his 
statement, which is substantially as follows : 

" I talked very little at my first visit ; I was skeptical, 
and without knowledge of the existence of any such power 



THE LIFE OF MOLLlE I \\« in.k. 73 

as Miss Fancher was said to possess ; really, my motive 
was rather selfish, as my aetual purpose was to further the 
interest of the company with which I was connected. I was 
very much interested in her case, and I was greatly sur- 
prised to find her of superior intellect, and of excellent 
business capacity. 

She was deeply interested in the work of my company, 
and on the following Christmas I sent her a small present 
from our factory. We made her a bed, adapting it to her 
requirements, and it was at this* time that she received the 
last fall, which so severely injured the back of her neck, 
and gave her such a severe shock. She was in such a 
terrible condition, that I acceded to the desire of her aunt, 
and spent considerable time in watching at her bedside. 
It was at this time that the remarkable features of her 
case, in regard to separate intelligences or distinct parts 
of a whole life being manifested as separate individuals, 
was called to my attention." 

Mr. Sargent relates, that since that time down to the 
present, it is a quite common occurrence, at night, for five 
distinct changes to occur in the facial expressions, intona- 
tions of the voice, language and intellectual quality of 
Mollie Fancher, and this is corroborated by others. The 
duration of these changes is often exceedingly brief. Mr. 
Sargent, "for the purpose of distinguishing them, has, at 
their request, given each a name, which to his mind in 
some degree indicates or corresponds to the individuality 
of the one to whom it is applied. Their names are as 
follows : 

"Sunbeam," "Idol," "Rosebud," " Pearl" and "Ruby." 

It will be better to use Mr. Sargent's language, as far 
as possible, in describing these remarkable phases of Miss 
Fancher's case. He says: " Miss Fancher received the fall 
from the bed on the 6th day of April, 1887. On the 8th 
day of April, while I was sitting by her, she came out of a 



74 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

trance, her eyes widely opened. There was a decided 
change in her facial expression, and she seemed astonished 
at my presence. It seemed to me that she was another 
person, and I asked, 'Who are you?' 'Who are you?' 
was the reply. Then Miss Crosby, who was present, in- 
troduced me to Mollie number 2, whom I have since 
designated as 'Idol.' She remembered her, although she 
had not seen her for eight years. She then spoke of 
things and events of eight years before, as though they 
were but of yesterday, or even of fifteen minutes before. 
Then we had to get acquainted with each other, precisely 
as would any other two strangers. I proceeded to ques- 
tion her as to the events of her life ; to ascertain to my 
own satisfaction, if possible, just who and what she was. 
Since then she has come very frequently when I was pres- 
ent, understanding and claiming that she was Mollie 
Fancher, and understanding that there was another char- 
acter or individual claiming also to be Mollie Fancher, 
asked me to give her a name. After much thought and 
discussion I bestowed upon her the name of 'Idol.' Our 
acquaintance ripened into warm friendship, in the same 
manner as does friendship between any other persons. 
' Sunbeam' is the Mollie Fancher usually seen during the 
day, who manages and gives directions about her affairs, 
and does the beautiful embroidery, crochet and other fine 
work, held and highly prized by so many friends of Miss 
Fancher. She becomes weary and needs rest usually 
about 11 o'clock at night; her spasms and trances com- 
mence, which are now followed by the appearances I have 
stated. I soon found that when we told ' Idol ' of the 
numerous friends of ' Sunbeam,' of her beautiful work 
which we showed to her, she seemed to become exceed- 
ingly jealous, and was sad that she had no friends, and 
that she could not do the work that the other Mollie, 
' Sunbeam,' could do. She would get hold of ' Sunbeam's ' 



I UK LIFE OF MOKLIE FANCHER. 75 

work and hide it away about the bed, or in other places 
within her reach, and to prevent this ' Sunbeam' secretes 
it, or asks others to put the work away. ' Idol ' sometimes 
unravels her crochet work. 

They have written a number of letters to each other. 
1 Idol ' writes a straight hand, as Mollie did before she was 
injured, but, remarkable as it may seem, she has no recol- 
lection of being hurt. She does not recall either of the 
great accidents which befel Miss Fancher, producing her 
sickness. ' Pearl ' writes the same hand as ' Idol.' ' Rose- 
bud ' prints her letters like a little child, makes use of the 
small "i" instead of the large "I" for the first personal 
pronoun, and speaks like a little child. Preceding their 
coming, Miss Fancher first usually goes into a trance, then 
'nto spasms, and then these persons, if I may use that ex- 
pression, come afterwards. 

As we were speaking, Miss Fancher being brain weary, 
had taken up her crochet work, and was busily knitting, 
when she suddenly fell into a trance. Her arms were 
raised, and her hands continued to hold her needles and 
work in the same position they were in when at work. 
Her joints were stiffened, and hands immovable. She 
continued in this state a few moments and then returned 
to consciousness, apparently refreshed, resumed her work, 
and commenced speaking, taking up the thread of the 
conversation at the precise point reached when she fell in 
the trance. The first change of condition seemed instan- 
taneous. When asked where she had been, she said she 
did not know." Mr. Sargent continues : " I have seen her 
often go into a trance and her hands remain as we have 
just seen for a half an hour. She first usually goes into a 
rigid trance, perfectly dead to all consciousness. The 
first symptom of her coming back is a relax-trance. To 
me it seems the dawning of consciousness ; and it com- 
mences by living over one or more of the important events 



j6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

of the day, and is expressed by her talking to some person 
who is visible to her, but not to others. She can evidently 
hear the answers, but we can not. She certainly is at times 
carrying on a conversation with somebody. She may be 
asking and answering questions ; sometimes she is laugh- 
ing and sometimes scolding. [Here Miss Fancher 
laughingly protested against being thus 'given away.'] 
She will sometimes be repeating what she had said during 
the day ; living it all over again. When she comes out of 
this condition, I can easily verify what has transpired in 
various ways, without being discovered in my purpose. 
To me she seems like a phonograph, which is repeating 
what had been spoken into it. In that way I have become 
familiar with all the family affairs. Miss Crosby was worn 
out, and solicited my assistance, and I relieved her as 
much as possible, and often it has been as late as two or 
three o'clock in the morning before I got home. 

After going through with the changes I have just de- 
scribed, she would return to consciousness, but would be 
so weak as to be absolutely powerless. Then we adopted 
a signal by which she could make known what to do ; one 
gentle touch of the finger indicated that it was ' Sunbeam '; 
two, that it was ' Idol,' who was conscious ; a certain sign 
signified water, another air, etc. This we designated 
'bringing her over the bridge.' Sometimes she will get 
partly out and then relapse again. We will sometimes 
shake her, and resort to various methods to bring her 
back to full consciousness. 

Then, again, what transpired in those trances would 
be very different from what I have now related. I have 
never been an investigator into any spiritual phenomena, 
nor had I knowledge of power in any person to either 
see, hear or speak to beings not visible to the rest of us. 
But there were evidently times when Miss Fancher was in 
those trances, when she talked with people not in this 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 77 

world. This was the first and most convincing evidence 
that I ever had of the presence of spirits around us. Miss 
Fancher was, and in so far as I know always has been, very 
reticent in speaking of her own inner consciousness. 
What she sees and experiences in these trances she is not 
inclined of her own volition to state. The many cruel 
things which have been written and said of her, the prone- 
ness to ridicule statements of such experiences as hers, 
upon such a sensitive nature, I believe has had the effect 
of closing her lips to much that would be valuable testi- 
mony, upon subjects now greatly agitating the popular 
mind in all civilized countries. What I have observed in 
Miss Fancher's case I shall truthfully and explicitly state 
irrespective of consequence. 

I have seen her at times when she was strangely 
transfigured ; her features were illuminated. She seemed 
on the very border-land between the seen and the unseen 
universe. When I have questioned her upon the subject, 
she has told me that she was conscious of the presence of 
friends and relations who have died, and particularly of 
her mother and aunt, whom she sees clairvoyantly. When 
she came back to consciousness after those instances of 
her being transfigured, it was through terrible spasms, and 
all my power was required to hold her on the bed. Some- 
times when in these intermediate states which I have 
described, she sings beautifully and seems very happy. 

Sometimes when Miss Fancher is in a very weak con- 
dition, she appears unlike any one I ever knew. She takes 
to pleating, saying it is for her coffin. When 'Idol' be- 
comes tired she will say to those present, 'I must go now, 
kiss my eyes down and hold me close,' and the expressive 
face becomes immediately changed. 

One year after ' Idol ' came I first saw ' Rosebud.' It 
was the sweetest little child's face, the voice and accent 
that of a little child. She was apparently frightened, and 



78 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

was asking for her mother. I asked 'Who is this?' 
AVithout answering she asked me who I was. I asked her 
whom she knew ; she said she knew Spencer, whom I 
have since learned was a friend and little boy acquaint- 
ance in Miss Fancher's childhood days. I learned from 
Miss Crosby that she came first eight years before, but 
only at intervals. I began to strike up an acquaintance 
with her. She asked me if I loved her ? I asked how old 
she was, and she said 'six years old.' I asked her if she 
went to school, and she said 'yes, sir.' I asked who her 
teacher was ; she answered ' Miss Evans.' [It will be re- 
membered that Miss Evans was Miss Fancher's first 
teacher.] She told me the names of her playmates. I 
asked her where she lived when she first came to Brooklyn, 
and she said Washington street ; that she lived there one 
year, and then they moved to Hunter street, now known 
as Irving Place, and then they ' moved up the Avenue.' I 
asked her when she went from there ; she said, ' I live there 
now.' She told me her father had a horse, cows and chick- 
ens. She is a great mimic and can imitate animals 
and fowls very nicely. I asked her to sing for me, and 
she sang ' I want to be an angel,' ' Little drops of water ' 
and 'There is a happy land.' Then she tried to get up, 
and was astonished to find that she could not, and wanted 
to know what was the matter with her, and what made 
her so 'big.' She asked for her father and mother; was 
not aware that the latter was dead, and we did not deem 
it prudent to tell her. 

" Next after ' Rosebud ' comes ' Pearl.' It is impossible 
to imagine upon this earth a more spiritual being than 
1 Pearl.' She is like a young lady of seventeen or eighteen 
years, very sweet in expression. The face of Miss Fan- 
cher, when ' Pearl ' comes, assumes in features the expres- 
sion of a young lady of seventeen. Every word and 
action is smooth, cultured and agreeable. She seems to 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 79 

cover and hold in remembrance what transpired in the life 
of Mollie Fancher up to about her sixteenth year. What 
she seems to dwell the most upon are the events which 
transpired in Miss Fancher's life about the time when she 
probably took her exit. She remembers Professor West, 
and her school days and friends up to about the 16th year 
in the life of Miss Fancher. She pronounces her words 
with an accent peculiar to young ladies of about 1S65. 
She remembers Miss Evans whom ' Rosebud ' also remem- 
bers ; but she is wholly unlike ' Rosebud.' Her visits are 
very brief, sometimes five, at others ten or fifteen minutes, 
and sometimes only a minute, then she makes her presence 
known by the pressure of her fingers and holds no con- 
versation at all. The longest of her visits is not over 
half an hour. She seems almost like a spirit. Her life is 
probably fenced off by one of those accidents ; I cannot 
otherwise account for it. 

Xext comes * Ruby,' and she can be contrasted with 
'Pearl' as rubies can with pearls. Sometimes she comes 
with a bound and a shout, full of vivacity and good humor, 
and departs in about the same way. It is only on very 
rare occasions that she is sad. She makes light of pain, 
and nearly everything else. She delights in ridiculing me. 
She is bright, smart and witty, and it is a great pleasure 
to converse with her. She is entirely unlike ' Pearl.' She 
calls me a tyrant because I reason with her, and try to put 
her to sleep. She does everthing with a dash. What 
mystifies me about ' Ruby,' and distinguishes her from the 
others, is that she does not, in her conversations with me, 
go much into the life of Mollie Fancher. She has the air 
of knowing a good deal more than she tells. They all 
appear timid of strangers ." 



8o THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XI. 



" The forms I see are intangible ; I cannot touch them.''" 

At eight o'clock on the 16th day of February, 1893, I 
called upon Miss Fancher for additional facts within her 
own knowledge, and to study further the peculiar phases 
of her case. I hoped to meet Mr. Sargent there, and get 
from him further information relative to the different 
characters mentioned in the preceding chapter. I found 
Miss Fancher alone, excepting, however, the presence of 
a talking parrot and her canary bird. "Joe," the parrot, 
bade me "good evening " before I could say as much to 
Miss Fancher. The heavy, dark, leaden colored rings 
around her eyes told me too plainly of the dreadful 
heart spasms she had suffered. She told me she was 
suffering greatly, and that a heavy storm was coming on, 
although the evening was bright and cold. Within 
twenty-four hours, however, a severe snow-storm set in, 
as she predicted. She informed me that in these condi- 
tions her sufferings were very great, and her clairvoyant 
sight much impaired. 

To my inquiries as to the exact date of the first 
appearance of these other "Mollies" already in some 
degree described, she replied that all the knowledge she 
had of them was through her Aunt Susan, and that " Idol " 
first made her appearance about three years after the long 
trance, which would be about 1878. She had received a 
severe nervous shock, and soon thereafter "Idol" put in 
an appearance, in the presence of Miss Crosby. The 
fact of these remarkable changes in the intelligence con- 
trolling the person of Miss Fancher, she said, was known 
to but very few persons, for the reason that they usually 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. OI 

occur late at night, and whoever they are, and whatever 
they may be, they are timid of strangers, and will seldom 
make their presence known to any but those they are 
acquainted with. And when we reflect that they go back 
to Miss Fancher's early life, and do not remember any- 
thing which has transpired during the last twenty-seven 
years, excepting that which has come to their knowledge 
during the brief intervals, when they have been conscious 
in the night-time, it will be seen that there is very little 
opportunity for them to meet any but strangers when 
they come to consciousness. As Miss Crosby has died, 
and they made the acquaintance of Mr. Sargent while she 
was living, they awake to consciousness during the night, 
and keep silent unless they see some familiar face present. 
While waiting for Mr. Sargent to come, I asked Miss 
Fancher if she had seen her brother since his death ? 
(Except by a marginal note, I have omitted to mention 
the fact of the death of her brother since the commence- 
ment of this writing, by a railroad accident in New Jer- 
sey.) She replied that she was conscious of his presence 
a great deal of the time, and the circumstances attending 
his terrible death were ever before her eyes, and naturally 
very much depressed her. I reminded her of one advan- 
tage she had over most bereaved persons, that she could 
see into the spiritual realm, and know they were not 
wholly lost to her, that they were waiting her coming on 
the shining shore of the Summer Land. She burst into 
tears, and wringing her hands said, " Yes, that is what a 
minister said to me the other day ; but do you suppose 
that is satisfying to me ? Here I have lain upon this bed, 
in this room, all of these years ; and I see one after 
another of those I loved dearest and best, taken away to 
that heaven I so long for but cannot go to. When I am in 
my flesh I want my friends in the flesh also, and not be 
left to the mercy of strangers. I do not despise this gift 



82 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

of spiritual sight, but to me the forms I see are intangi- 
ble. They are here, but I cannot touch them; I cannot 
press them to my bosom, as I so much long to do." 

I could only respond that she had the sympathy of all 
who knew the facts of her condition, and that for some 
wise purpose her life was prolonged, and its lessons were 
full of instruction to those who learned them. That the 
remarkable powers she at times possessed were teaching 
humanity what ought to be better understood. 

No person has gone through so much suffering with 
greater patience and resignation than Miss Fancher. It 
is not wonderful that at times she is depressed. The 
period covered by the few months since I commenced 
these writings has been full of great suffering for her. 
Not once have the evidences of her pains disappeared 
from her face. From the shock of the news of her 
brother's death she has not recovered. It was first an- 
nounced to her faithful clerk, in her little store under the 
room where Miss Fancher lies. She did not need to tell 
Miss Fancher of the accident or of its results ; she merely 
asked her if she had heard from her brother ; when Miss 
Fancher screamed, " My God, he is dead !" and went into 
spasms. Now, after the lapse of two months, the effect 
is constantly present. By placing the hand upon the 
bedding over her limbs, or holding her hand, an incessant 
tremor is manifest. 

At this visit I learned that neither of the Mollie Fan- 
chers, as we shall call them, covers in her memory the 
events of the nine years following from May ist, 1869. 
The one designated as " Sunbeam " — which appellation 
will continue to be used — at the expiration of the nine 
years, took up the task of learning to do the same work 
the otherwise unnamed Mollie Fancher had done during 
the nine years spoken of. She has since that time learned 
to do more beautiful work. She attempted to describe to 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 83 

me her feelings, when shown a box containing some wax 
flowers made by her during those nine years so oblivious 
to her. She said an involuntary shudder came over her 
when she first saw them. It seemed to her that it was 
the unfinished work of a person then dead, and it was many 
months before she could bring herself to touch them. 
There was unfinished embroidery and incomplete crochet 
work, which had been done with her hands, of which she 
had no recollection ; and whose brain had planned or 
directed it, was to her a mystery. She related that when 
she came to consciousness after the nine years had 
elapsed, and went into trances, upon coming to conscious- 
ness, it was no unusual thing to find that she had been 
crying and pleating lining for her coffin. In this condi- 
tion she made for herself a white satin waist, as a part of 
her robe for the grave, which is now turned yellow with 
age, but which she still keeps. Mr. Sargent informed me 
that at times, while apparently unconscious of the pres- 
ence of others, she goes through the form of pleating 
with her fingers, and will make use of a piece of ribbon or 
strip of cloth, if within her reach, and form it into pleats. 
These occasions, however, are not common, and follow 
the condition of trance. Her aunt related the conduct of 
Miss Fancher — that is, " Sunbeam " — soon after she came 
out of her long trance of one month, at the close of the 
nine years, in 1875. She manifested the greatest grief 
that she was "back again in the cold world," and wept 
and wrung her hands in her sorrow. Miss Fancher herself 
confesses to a recollection of her grief. She had been 
for a month as in the sleep of death. That she would 
wake to consciousness in this world was not expected by 
her friends. She had taken no food, and there was such 
an absence of all appearance of life that none but her 
physician could detect that she still lived. When she 
came to consciousness all recollection of the events of 



84 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

the nine last preceding years was gone and has never 
returned. 

The leaves of memory containing the record of what 
she had been conscious of, during that long period in her 
life, were to her closed and securely sealed. That long 
trance had relaxed the rigour of her limbs ; the right arm 
which for nine years had closely held its position under 
her head, came back to flexibility. With it evidently a 
portion of her brain functions, which had in like manner 
been held rigidly in abeyance, and yet unimpaired, was 
released from restraint, and the seat of the operations of 
her mind was shifted to the other hemisphere of the brain 
and only took up consciousness where it had been shut 
off so long before. 

This, however, is only a theory of my own, and not 
being a medical man, it is entitled to little consideration. 
I have after considerable inquiry found no physician 
willing to give any statement for publication, as to how 
the strange workings of Miss Fancher's brain are caused. 



THE LIFE OF MOLUE FANCHER. 85 



CHAPTER XII. 



A Personal Interview with the Several Mollie 
Fanchers. 

I had requested and been promised the privilege of 
spending sufficient of some night at the bedside of Miss 
Fancher to enable me to see and hold conversation with 
the different Mollie Fanchers, as they should appear. 

It was during the evening of February 16th, 1893, that 
my desire was unexpectedly gratified. Mr. Sargent was 
late in coming, and I had considerably exhausted her 
mental efforts to recall events that I was anxious to locate. 
Soon after he came Miss Fancher dropped into a trance, 
and so remained for quite a time, while I pursued him 
with questions for incidents in his own experience with 
her. The first evidence of returning consciousness was 
the relaxing of her arms from their rigid condition; then 
came violent spasms and twitching of the limbs; then the 
rapid swaying of her head from side to side set in, fol- 
lowed by moans as of distress; then she violently beat 
her breast over the region of her heart with one fist, and 
with the other hand attempted to tear her hair and beat 
her head. These acts were restrained as much as possible, 
but the violence of her spasms perceptibly shook the floor. 
At length a faintly spoken word announced to Mr. Sar- 
gent the presence of "Idol." With opened eyes she 
greeted Mr. Sargent, and extending her hands she asked 
him where he had been so long. He replied, " Away on 
business." She asked what business, and to what places 
he had been. He explained to her how necessary it was 
for him to attend to his business, and asked if she had 
missed him. "Yes," she said, "you have been gone five 



86 THE L1FF OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

nights. I have been here and there has been no one that 
I could speak to, and I was all alone." Just then the par- 
rot, Joe, said "Hello!" She started, turned her head, 
asking "What is that?" and was very much interested 
in listening to the bird. During this time I was standing 
fully in her view, closely beside Mr. Sargent, who was 
seated on a low chair bending over her. She evidently 
had not observed me. Had she been able to see clearly, 
she must have noticed me, but did not. When Mr. Sar- 
gent announced that he had a friend present to whom he 
wished to introduce her, she seemed alarmed, and asked, 
"Who is he ?" Then he pointed to me, and asked her if 
she knew me. It was not until I had spoken, and she had 
heard my voice, that she turned her eyes in my direction, 
and then timidly extended her left hand and greeted me. 
I then closely interrogated her as to whether she had ever 
before seen me. At first she said she had not. Then 
after a moment's reflection she said, " I remember you 
and of reaching my hand and taking hold of your beard." 
She said, " You are the man with the long beard, who came 
to see the other Mollie and pay her for embroidering a 
gown for your wife, and I was on the mattress, and it was 
after Mollie had the fall from the bed. You could not 
pay for it, because my aunt did not know how much the 
bill was, and you said you would have to come again." 

"Idol" remembered the incidents attending my call- 
ing so many years before more clearly than I did, and by 
repeating them brought them vividly back to mind. She 
seemed gentle and quiet, and withal somewhat sad. She 
expressed the opinion that she could learn to work as did 
Mollie, and after awhile do the work as well as she. When 
reminded that her visits were short, she replied that she 
could do a little, and it would amount to a good deal after 
awhile. She remembered back to early childhood, the in- 
cidents of Miss Fancher's life up to about the time of the 



THE LIFE OF" MOLLIE FANCIIER. 87 

accident, but was wholly unconscious of anything that 
had transpired since then, even of the events in the life 
of "Sunbeam," excepting only those things which have 
occurred in her presence, in her brief visits or returns to 
consciousness; those things she recollected quite distinctly. 
She did not, however, remember the first accident nor any- 
thing apparently connected with it. After a few moments' 
conversation she turned her face away toward Mr. Sar- 
gent, and, with a weary look, the animated expression 
upon her face disappeared, and Miss Fancher was again 
in a rigid trance. 

During the time of our conversation, she made various 
efforts to move her limbs in the bed, as if she desired to 
get up, and seemed annoyed that she was unable to do 
so. This rigid trance was followed by a relax-trance; 
then by the violent spasms of her body, and the shaking 
of the bed and floor; and then came swinging of the arms, 
the beating of her breast and the top of the head with 
her fists, and the efforts to restrain her, and finally a re- 
awakening to consciousness. Mr. Sargent was recognized 
and greeted, and the presence of " Rosebud " was an- 
nounced. She also was inquisitive to know of Mr. Sar- 
gent where he had been so long, what had kept him away, 
and if he could not have returned sooner. 

There is no question in my mind, but that " Rosebud " 
is limited wholly to the experiences of the life of Miss 
Fancher up to about her sixth or seventh year. The little 
songs common among children of forty years ago, she 
distinctly remembers, and brought to my recollection 
some which I had entirely forgotten. When asked to re- 
peat all she could remember, she went on to detail a great 
many events in the life of Miss Fancher, with much greater 
distinctness than the majority of people could give events 
in their early lives. After repeating several familiar songs, 
she began to repeat, working her hands like a little child, 



88 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

the old song, " There was a Frog lived in a Well, Kimo, 
Karo, Kimo;" and she certainly looked, as much as was 
possible with Miss Fancher's features, and acted, as would 
a little child of six or seven years, when questioned upon 
such subjects. I questioned her as to where she first 
lived when she came to Brooklyn, and she informed me 
in Washington street, and from there she went on and de- 
tailed the different places as mentioned by Mr. Sargent, 
until she came to Fulton avenue, and then stopped. 
"Well," said I, "Where did you go from Fulton avenue ?" 
Her answer was, "We never moved from there; we live 
there now." When asked as to where her mother was, 
she said she had gone away, and was sick, and she did not 
know when she would come back. Her coming was pre- 
ceded by a rigid trance lasting a few moments, then by the 
relax-trance, then by the convulsions already described. 
It was certainly a strange scene to witness the coming of 
Miss Fancher to consciousness, as a little child, from 
these distressing conditions, which indicated considerable 
physical suffering. Her awaking to consciousness ap- 
peared to be attended by a struggle, as if striving to 
arouse herself from a troubled sleep or dream. 

Mr. Sargent's experience in these matters, enabled him 
by the signals already spoken of, to know who it was that 
was coming to consciousness. Her action indicated that 
she recognized him as a friend, whose absence for several 
preceding nights she had deplored, and asked, as would a 
little child, what made him stay away so long, and what he 
had been doing. Like the others, her face was turned, so 
that had she possessed ordinary vision, she would have de- 
tected my presence, but apparently she did not know of 
the presence of anyone excepting Mr. Sargent, until he 
called her attention to me, as he did in the other instances. 
There was a movement of her eyes, which indicated doubt 
as to what part of the room I was in, and it was not until 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 89 

I approached closely to her, that she apparently recognized 
me, and then bashfully withdrew herself until reassured 
by Mr. Sargent that I was a good friend, and had come to 
see her, when she reached up her hand and greeted me 
with a kiss. Mr. Sargent is a very good singer, and sang 
a little piece which seemed to please her very much. 

She seemed to have considerable curiosity as to the 
parrot, which obstinately refused to talk at the precise 
time desired. I informed her also that I w r as going to 
write all about her, and she twisted her hands and said 
" Nobody wants to know about me." Soon she com- 
plained of being tired, and went out of consciousness as 
in the other instances, passing into a rigid trance. 

Probably from ten to fifteen minutes elapsed after Miss 
Fancher went into this rigid condition, before she came to 
consciousness again, and her coming was preceded by all 
the symptoms and actions which she experienced before 
the coming of the others. At last a faintly spoken name 
was heard, which was recognized as that of "Pearl." She 
greeted Mr. Sargent warmly. 

She complained of loneliness when she awoke in the 
night; that no one was there to greet her, and that she 
went to sleep again without speaking to anyone. When 
she was told that I was present, she asked where, and 
when I approached and spoke, she turned her face toward 
me and seemed to recognize my presence. She was more 
cheerful than "Idol," and when I was introduced greeted 
me pleasantly, and I at once engaged her in conversation. 
She had no recollection of ever having seen me. I was a 
stranger to her. She forgot entirely having talked with 
me a few moments before, and it was clear to my mind 
that she was totally unconscious of any of the facts or 
events which had transpired in the presence of Miss Fan- 
cher, during the evening preceding her coming. She also 
remembered the incidents of Miss Fancher's early life, 



f)6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

and what had transpired down to about the time of the 
first accident. She could give me the names of her friends 
and acquaintances during the time she was attending 
school at Professor West's. She spoke of those experi- 
ences as being those in life, and when I called her Mollie 
Fancher, she said she was not Mollie Fancher; she was 
Pearl; Mollie Fancher was dead. I asked how that could 
be, as her father and mother were the father and mother 
of Mollie Fancher, and that there was but one Mollie 
Fancher, and that she must be a part of the life and be- 
ing of Mollie Fancher. She mused for a moment, then 
smiled and turned her face away and said she did not 
know how it was. She soon became tired, said she was 
sleepy, and immediately dropped out, as it were, of our 
presence, and the person of Mollie Fancher was again in 
a rigid trance. 

One feature I noted, which is common to the exit of 
each of the characters I am speaking of; and that is, that 
in the midst of conversation, each one in turn complained 
of being tired, and instantly seemed to disappear, and 
Miss Fancher passed into a rigid trance. I took every 
possible occasion during their brief presence, to question 
them concerning their individual experiences in the affairs 
of this life, so that I might be able to state as definitely 
as possible, what portions of the life of Miss Fancher each 
covered; what is common to all, and what each individual 
recollects. 

Next came "Ruby," the same symptoms preceding her 
advent; but the moment she came to consciousness she 
attempted to move her limbs, putting her arms back, and 
bracing her body up to a sitting position, and asked Mr. 
Sargent to support her back; which he did with pillows, 
and she immediately went into a lively conversation, ex- 
pressing great pleasure that he was home, and, like the 
others, wanted to know where he had been, what had de- 



i ill'. LIFE OP MOLLIE l'.A ncii kr. 91 

tained him, and complained of the exceeding loneliness 
of her condition when she awoke up in the night and 
found no one there to whom she could speak. Each one, 
just preceding consciousness, indicated intense suffering 
in and about the region of the heart and the top of the 
head; Miss Fancher beating in both places violently with 
her fists, which required a great deal of strength on the 
part of Mr. Sargent to restrain. Sitting upright in the 
bed, I standing closely beside and somewhat in front of 
her, she did not at first recognize my presence, but after 
being introduced she chatted with me quite freely, and 
accurately described me as a man with a bald head and a 
long light beard, and when I asked her how she knew, she 
reached out her hand and took hold of my beard, and 
said "I can see it and feel it too/' I was very much in- 
terested in "Ruby," for she was quite vivacious, and ges- 
ticulated considerably with her arms in giving expression 
to her words. It is evident that Mr. Sargent had not 
questioned her so critically with reference to her identity 
with the life of Miss Fancher as I did, for I succeeded in 
ascertaining from her that she remembered of being 
thrown from the horse on Gates avenue, and injured upon 
the top of her head, and she also remembered incidents 
in the life of Mollie Fancher, from Miss Fancher's earliest 
recollection until after her first serious injury. She re- 
membered going to school to Miss Evans; she remem- 
bered Professor West, and also Mr. Taylor, who was her 
beau, to whom she was engaged to be married, but had 
ceased to regard with affection. In short, from the brief 
interview I had with her, I became satisfied that she car- 
ried in memory more of the life of Miss Fancher than 
any of the others? excepting "Sunbeam," and evidently 
grasps the same events remembered by " Idol," " Pearl " 
and "Rosebud," and by "Sunbeam" until some time 
after the first accident. She left without saying " good- 



92 THE LIFE OF MOLLiE FANCHER. 

evening," by complaining of being tired, and dropped 
out of consciousness. She told me that she knew how to 
crochet, and that she could learn to do the fine work 
done by " Sunbeam," had she material at hand and an 
opportunity to practice. 

She appeared quite interested as to what I was going 
to write about her. She stated that during Mr. Sargent's 
absence, Mollie had fallen out of bed again, but as the 
nurse had said nothing about it, Mr. Sargent did not deem 
it prudent to speak of it. She complained that she had 
received a shock, and very likely the fall was produced 
while in this state of semi-consciousness, struggling to 
awake. Coming, as they usually do, in the middle of the 
night, or towards morning, the attendant had fallen asleep, 
and Miss Fancher bad received another shock, from which 
she was suffering considerably. 

It must not be forgotten that neither of these charac- 
ters has any recollection of what transpired during those 
nine years spoken of, nor of the acquaintance made ; and 
the thought comes, as to whether in the development of 
this strange case, a sixth Mollie Fancher may not yet 
put in an appearance, who will recall what transpired dur- 
ing that time. The testimony concerning them might be 
greatly increased, did each attendant understand these 
peculiar phases of Miss Fancher's case, and watch their 
coming and going. Mr. Sargent explained, that some- 
times one would seem to be crowded out ; and it will be 
noted that they do not put in an orderly appearance, 
either commencing with " Ruby " and going backward to 
" Rosebud," or commencing with " Rosebud " and going 
in regular succession to "Ruby." 

Following the disappearance of " Ruby," " Sunbeam " 
came back to consciousness, complaining of being very 
tired, and of suffering greatly, and dreading the long 
night before her. She seemed surprised when told that all 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 93 

of the Mollies had been there, and that I had conversed 
with them. They came at a much earlier hour than usual, 
which most likely was produced by the additional shock 
Miss Fancher had received by the fall .spoken of by 
" Ruby," but of which " Sunbeam " appeared to have no 
consciousness, and Mr. Sargent did not then inform her 
of what " Ruby " had said regarding it. 

Mrs. Julia A. Macauley, who attended Miss Fancher 
for quite a time during the day, and up until about ten 
o'clock at night, when questioned by me said that she had 
never seen these other characters to her knowledge, but 
with one exception; that upon one occasion when Mollie 
had come out from her trance and spasms, she came with 
her eyes widely opened, looking, acting and talking very 
strangely. But this phase of Miss Fancher's case had 
not then been explained to Mrs. Macauley. 

Miss Crosby, and the other nightly attendants upon 
Miss Fancher, who had opportunities for noticing these 
apparent changes of the personality of Miss Fancher, as 
I choose to designate them, had deemed it best to com- 
municate these phases ^f her case only to a few of their 
most intimate friends, hoping thereby to avoid the annoy- 
ance of additional notoriety, which might be occasioned 
by stating what they had observed. Hence it seems that 
whenever these changes in Miss Fancher's condition have 
occurred, and the characters I have named have appeared 
in the presence of strangers, the nature of the changes 
have not been noted as they otherwise might have been. 

Feeling that the phenomena of Miss Fancher's many 
selves should be as fully described as is consistent with 
the scope of this work, and my statements verified as 
completely as may be essential, the following chapter de- 
voted to the statement, written by Mr. George F. Sargent, 
already spoken of, will be read with interest. 



94 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Statement of Mr. George F. Sargent. 

Brooklyn, July 5th, 1893. 
Judge A. H. Dailey, 

My Dear Sir : — I am in receipt of your request, that 
I certify to the correctness of your report of the peculiar 
features of the case of Miss Mary J. Fancher, usually 
known as Mollie Fancher, in so far as they relate to the 
appearance of the several Mollie Fanchers — called " Sun- 
beam," "Idol," "Rosebud," "Pearl " and "Ruby." 

I cheerfully do so ; and here state, that I have carefully 
listened to the same as read by you, and find that your 
statement of what occurred at the time you were present, 
is in accordance with my recollections. 

You request me also to state any additional features 
of interest, in regard to those phases of her case, and to 
furnish such other information as I think may prove in- 
teresting for publication, of which I have personal knowl- 
edge. 

There ^re, indeed, many intesting matters and inci- 
dents connected with them, and my chief regret is, that in 
endeavoring to comply with your request, I have not the 
power to depict, through the medium of any language at 
my command, their full significance, or to make as strik- 
ingly apparent to your readers the occurrences as they ap- 
peared to me. If you will therefore permit me, I will try 
and tell in my own fashion, of such scenes and incidents, 
as seemingly will be of interest, as I can recall them. 

My first acquaintance with " Idol " began April 8th, 
1886. Three days previous to that date, Miss Fancher 
had accidentally fallen from the bed t striking her head on 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 95 

the floor, which added injury to injury, causing unusual 
suffering. 

On the evening mentioned, her aunt Susie, (Miss 
Crosby) and I were sitting by her bedside, when Miss 
Fancher went into a trance. While in this condition her 
aunt left the room. When she came out of the trance I 
was alone with her, and was startled to see her eyes wide 
open, as I had never before seen her except with closed 
eyes. She looked strangely at me and asked : " Who are 
you ?" as though it was an impertinence for a stranger to 
be sitting by her bedside, and at the same time, asked 

where is , naming a person wholly unfamiliar to me, 

and then asked about a matter of which I was entirely 
ignorant, which indicated that she supposed the matter in 
question was something which was in the immediate 
present, and that she expected to find the person referred 
to at her bedside instead of a stranger. I was nonplussed 
at the situation, and each moment added to my confu- 
sion. I tried, however, to explain my identity, and was 
thus engaged, when her aunt returned to the room. She 
was almost as much surprised as I, as she said it was three 
or four years since that Mollie had made an appearance. 
She was also distressed for the reason, as she afterwards 
told me, that it meant added suffering for poor Mollie. 

She said that the appearance of the second Mollie 
preluded extraordinary suffering for the first one. 

The return of her aunt Susie relieved the embarrass- 
ment, and I was formally introduced, and during the rest 
of her brief stay the time was devoted to the cultivating 
of our better acquaintance, which, owing to the friendly 
intervention of her aunt, who represented me as a friend 
of the other Mollie, was entirely successful. 

She made all sorts of inquiries concerning the other 
Mollie ; wanted to know if I would think as much of this 
Mollie as I did of the other Mollie, She said nobody 



gG THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

cared anything for her, and quoted one of the other 
Mollie's friends, as having said to her the last time she 
,was here, when she asked some puzzling questions about 
herself, that she had better go to sleep, and when she 
awoke she would understand all about it. She seemed 
very sensitive about such treatment, saying that they all 
took some such means as that to get rid of her. Fortunately 
for our better mutual understanding, I had urged her to 
stay and tell me all about herself, and I told her that I 
would always be glad to greet her. After a stay of about 
three-quarters of an hour she said, " I am very tired," and 
with the saddest, sweetest expression on her face, and with 
pleading arms outreached toward her aunt Susie, she said, 
with a voice of such pathos that I shall never forget it, 
" Hold me close, kiss my eyes down," and in the twinkling 
of an eye her features became as rigid as sculptured 
marble. 

After a lapse of some ten or fifteen minutes she re- 
turned to consciousness, and the original Mollie again 
appeared on the scene, and seemed wholly ignorant of 
what had happened. She seemed to view the occasion 
when I told her of it as a calamity, and attributed the re- 
appearance of the other Mollie to the extreme suffering 
she was undergoing, as a result from her recent fall. 
Whether this was the cause of the reappearance of the 
second Mollie or not, I leave the problem for others to 
solve. It is certain, however, that her coming was 
accompanied by intense suffering, and the weaker Mollie 
Number i became, the more vigorous Mollie Number 
2 grew. From that date, for perhaps a year, the 
second Mollie came at frequent though irregular in- 
tervals, and the length of her visits increased. She 
seemed to have no note of time ; there was no yester- 
day or to-morrow in her calendar. When she came, it 
was always through a trance condition, and usually ac- 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. (Jj 

companied by severe spasms, and her exit was in a similar 
manner. If she had been talking at the time of her de- 
parture on any subject, on her return, whether it happened 
to be an hour, a day or a week, she would take up the 
thread of conversation where she had dropped it, if the 
same ones were present. If another one was present when 
she again appeared, she would seem surprised, and ask 
for the person whom she had left just as though there had 
been no interval between. She had just as much individual- 
ity as Mollie Number i ; so much so, that it became some- 
what of a question as to which should retain supremacy. 
Each would speak of the others as though they were dif- 
ferent personalities, and they would send each to the other 
messages and letters to be conveyed by Miss Crosby, and 
on occasions I have been the medium of communication. 
To illustrate the distinct individuality of the two 
Mollies, I will state that shortly after the time to which 
I have alluded as having made the acquaintance of Mollie 
Number 2, 1 had occasion to make a trip We%t, and during 
my absence I received a letter which reached me May 
1st, 1886, directed in the handwriting of Mollie Number 1. 
On opening the envelope I was surprised to find that it con- 
tained two letters, one each from both Mollies. There was 
no similarity in the chirography ; that of Mollie Number 1 
being written as she always writes, back-handed, and that 
of Mollie Number 2 with the letters inclined the other 
way. I do not think an expert on penmanship would de- 
cide that both letters were written by the same hand. 
The subject matter of the two letters was also entirely 
different, each dealing with its own peculiar life. These 
two letters also tend to demonstrate that the two individu- 
alities represent different periods of the same existence. 
The handwriting of Mellie Number 2, indicates the style 
acquired while a girl at school, while that of Mollie Num- 
ber 1, is unquestionably, that which was acquired by force 



9S the life of mollie fancher. 

of circumstances during that period of physical infirmity, 
when it became necessary to hold her pen in a certain 
way, in order either to write at all, or to write with the 
greater facility. That period of her life which embraces 
the first nine years of her sickness, I am unacquainted 
with except by hearsay, but I have specimens of her 
writing during that time, which are still different from 
either. 

You will notice that thus far I have spoken of Miss 
Fancher, or of the circumstances mentioned, only in the 
past tense, also that I mentioned the two individuals only, 
as Mollie Numbers i and 2. 

I have done this, not because they are not individual- 
ities of the present as well, but for the reason that cover- 
ing the time which was contemporaneous with the incidents 
alluded to, they had no other distinguishing identity than 
that indicated by numbers ; subsequently there have 
appeared still other Mollies, when it became advisable to 
identify each* by some name by which they would be re- 
cognizable by their friends as well as between themselves. 
I will, therefore, henceforth speak of Mollie Number 1 as 
"Sunbeam," and Mollie Number 2 as " Idol," and as the 
others appear, introduce them according to the names 
given them, beginning with " Rosebud." 

The advent of " Idol " had led me to make inquiry 
concerning the antecedents of Miss Fancher's life, which 
brought out the information, largely obtained from her 
Aunt Susie, and corroborated by others, that there had 
been at intervals covering a period of some four or five 
years, subsequent to 1875, the appearance of another per- 
sonality which came as a child. I was not wholly unpre- 
pared, therefore, shortly after, for the appearance of a 
third Mollie, although at the time of my first acquaintance 
with her, she had not been known to have appeared for 
eight years by any of her friends. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 99 

Her coming was very similar to that of " Idol," 
through a trance succeeded by a spasm, the only difference 
being that heretofore, after the exit of "Idol," "Sun- 
beam" had reappeared, but in this instance this little 
girl known as " Rosebud," instead, beamed on me with 
the face, voice and actions of a child. She seemed to 
regard the event as a matter of course, and with the 
exception of finding me at her side, it evidently seemed 
like the waking of a child from a nap. After satisfactory 
explanations as to who I was, she referred to events 
which correspond with the date of her last appearance, 
which was eight years before, as though there had been 
no lapse of time in the interim. She prattled like a child, 
and asked for a young friend who was present at her last 
coming, at which time he was a boy, but in the interim 
had grown to man's estate. She asked for her mamma, 
and said she was in New York sick, which indeed was the 
case some thirty years or more previous. I asked her 
how old she was, and she said seven years last August (at 
which time I think her actual age was thirty-seven). I 
induced her to tell me all about herself ; she told of her 
school teacher ; her girl and boy friends ; her Sunday- 
school teacher and classmates ; she sang several songs 
which she learned in week day and Sunday school, which 
brought vividly back to me the current songs of my child- 
hood, some of which would be wholly unfamiliar to 
children of to-day. She mimicked the cackling of hens ; 
the mewing of kittens ; the bleating of sheep ; the grunt- 
ing of pigs and the neighing of horses. She talked of 
streets in the neighborhood which were not familiar to 
me, which, on inquiry, I found had been changed in name 
years before. She asked how it was that she had grown 
so in size, and after a while she said, " Well, I guess I will 
get up," and made a futile effort to do so, but the poor 
body, chained to the bed by years of pain, refused to 



IOO THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

respond to the bounding activity of the child mind, which 
could not comprehend its bodily environment. Finally 
she grew tired, and as a shadow of pain o'erspread the 
child's face, she bade me a hasty good-bye. And as 
though clutched by aruthless unseen hand, she was violently 
shaken with spasms ; struggling there helpless and mute, 
she seemed like unto an innocent victim, a prey to the 
vicious sport of an invisible demon, until I could fancy 
that a guardian angel had suddenly appeared, and had 
smitten down her enemy, when her body instantly as- 
sumed the rigidity of a statue. Every cloud of suffer- 
ing vanished, and through a trance which succeeded 
she came back to (if such it can be called) her normal 
life. 

Since the event I have described, I have had many 
similar experiences, and though several years have elapsed, 
according to her own calendar, she is still " seven years old 
last August." On one occasion, while absent from the 
city, I received a letter enclosed in the same envelope 
with a letter from Miss Fancher, signed " Rosebud." 
The composition was of just such a character as might be 
expected from a child seven years old. The letters were 
printed in irregular sizes with capitals and small letters 
intermingled. The personal pronoun "I " was small and 
dotted. I had previously seen a letter written by her 
addressed to her mamma, which her aunt Susie had 
preserved as a curiosity, written about eight years before. 
The two productions were as near alike as would seem 
possible, as regards composition and execution. 

Not long after the advent of " Rosebud " there appeared 
a fourth Mollie, and subsequent to the fourth Mollie, I 
should say a year later, a fifth Mollie. These are known 
as " Pearl " and " Ruby," respectively. Their coming was 
similar to the appearance of " Idol " and " Rosebud," gener- 
ally preceded by a trance or a spasm, and frequently by 



THE LIFE OF MOM. I I. I ANCIIKR. IOI 

both, and their departure is always succeeded by either a 
trance or a spasm, and frequently by both. 

The different Mollies usually follow each other in the 
following order. After the first trance " Idol," then 
" Rosebud," then " Pearl " and lastly " Ruby ;" then back 
to normal condition, that of the first Mollie or " Sun- 
beam." 

The two latter Mollies are more matured than " Rose- 
bud," and less so than "Idol." I have never been able 
to fully determine which to pronounce the eldest ; the 
chief distinguishing features are that " Pearl " is more 
subdued, while " Ruby " is vivacious when not absolutely 
overcome by intensity of suffering. "Ruby" is always 
ready to joke, and is sparkling with wit, while " Pearl " 
is quiet and seems to feel the burdens of life more keenly, 
but she never complains or shows signs of petulance. To 
make a comparison, I should say they were as near alike as 
two sisters of nearly the same age and disposition, except 
that one was of a more buoyant temperament than the 
other. 

The visits of either " Pearl " or " Ruby " are, as a rule, 
much shorter than those of " Idol " or " Rosebud," and 
the appearances of "Rosebud" are of shorter duration 
than those of "Idol." "Idol" at times has manifested 
jealousy at not being able to do as fine work as " Sun- 
beam," and Miss Fancher's aunt, Miss Crosby, told 
me that " Idol " would sometimes get hold of the work 
done by " Sunbeam" and unravel or otherwise damage it. 
My belief is, however, that this is not done so much from 
jealousy as from the desire to make it known to "Sun- 
beam " that she has been here, or possibly to play a prac- 
tical joke, for each of the lives invariably speak most 
kindly of the other. 

The disposition and temperament of each Mollie, it 
seems to me, is quite distinct from all the others, and to 



102 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

me it would be quite difficult to believe that they can be 
the same being, were it not for the fact that they all seem 
more or less identified with some parts of the life of Mollie 
Fancher. Each one seems to be wholly unconscious of the 
existence of the other, and I believe them to be so. 

You ask me to state any facts of interest relative to 
the clairvoyant powers of Miss Fancher. I am fully sat- 
isfied from seeing the experiments tried, that she can see 
when blindfolded what is transpiring in and around the 
room. Usually her eyes are closed, and she does fine 
sewing and embroidering when they are closed. She can 
distinguish colors by touch, and sometimes works at night 
without the aid of artificial light. She has often told me 
of seeing her mother, and has also mentioned the names 
of other friends as seeing them, who have long since 
passed away. At such times she is in a condition uncon- 
scious as to present surroundings, and there seems to be 
no obstacle to prevent a direct communion with the un- 
seen. I have watched her facial expression at such times, 
and though her body would be rigid, the face would poi- 
tray joy or pain, indicating that an interview was being 
held with some unseen person, during which the face 
would be illumined with a joy and a peace that passed 
human understanding, as though an earthbound soul with 
loosened fetters was enjoying a brief holiday in the re- 
gions of light and rest. Then her face would gradually 
change to expressions of sadness, deeper and deeper until 
supplanted by pain, and as the body relaxed it would seem 
as though a soaring spirit, that had been sporting in the 
fields of paradise, was saying good-bye to the loved ones, 
and was retracing her steps downward to the less conge- 
nial surroundings of earth, to awake again on her couch 
of ever present suffering. 

She has correctly described where I was, and what I 
was doing on various occasions; once at a certain hour in 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 103 

the city of Muskegon, Michigan, in the month of October, 
1889. She, of course, was in Brooklyn, when to my cer- 
tain knowledge she could have no means of knowing the 
same, by any of the known and recognized channels of 
communication. I had not communicated to her the fact 
that I was going to sing at an entertainment there. I did 
not expect to do so until a short time before it occurred. 
I afterwards sent her an account of it, which was pub- 
lished in the local paper there, but found that in one of 
her trances she had in some way, inexplicable to me, seen 
me, or become aware of what I was doing, describing cor- 
rectly my surroundings, with such particularity as to place 
the description beyond question as to exactness. Upon 
coming out of the trance she told Mr. Herbert Blossom, 
an intimate friend then watching at her bed, what she 
had seen. I know Mr. Blossom also, intimately, and can 
fully rely on his word, which was, that upon coming out 
of the trance, she had described what she had seen me en- 
gaged in doing, and my surroundings. He did not credit 
the statement at the time as being at all correct, and in- 
sisted, he said, that she must for once have made a 
mistake. 

Perhaps it may be well to record her own version of 
this event, which is as follows : 

Upon coming out of the trance, Mr. Blossom remarked 
that she was gone a long time, and he began to be afraid 
she would never come back again. She answered that she 
had been far away, and had seen Mr. Sargent. He was 
standing up surrounded by a lot of people and was singing. 
Mr. Blossom thereupon smiled increduously, and said, "I 
guess that could not be so, as I was a comparative stranger 
out there." Miss Fancher replied, " Wait and see ; you 
will find I am right." The occasion was the opening to the 
public of Chase Bros', piano warerooms, which was cele- 
brated by a concert. My appearance there was wholly 



104 THE LIFE 0F MOLLIE FANCHEP. 

unexpected a few hour previous. I chanced to be in that 
city on business, and accepted an impromptu invitation 
to sing, my name not even appearing on the printed 
programme. 

One evening I called at Miss Fancher's and found that 
Judge Dailey had with two other gentlemen just previously 
entered. In introducing them Judge Dailey said, " Mollie, 
have you ever seen either of these gentlemen before ? " 
Pointing to one, she said, " I have never seen that gentle- 
man before," and looking at the other she hesitated a 
moment and said, "Why, Judge Dailey, this is the gentle- 
man I saw T with you that night of which Mr. Sargent made 
note at eleven o'clock in the evening, a year or so ago." 

On one Sunday evening in the month of March, 1887, 
I called on Miss Fancher about nine o'clock. She was in 
a trance at the time of my arrival, and her aunt, Miss 
Crosby, informed me that she had been in that condition 
for quite a little while. Soon after my entrance she came 
to consciousness, and after greeting me she said, "I saw 
you once before this evening." I was, of course, aston- 
ished at this declaration, knowing I had not been near her 
home, and also that it would have been impossible for her 
to have left her bed. I asked her to tell where she had 
seen me. She said, " In church ; you were standing in a 
doorway ; the door was partially open, and you were shak- 
ing hands with a lady." The facts of my whereabouts are 
as follows : At that time I had charge of the music in the 
Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church. The services being 
over I went to the library room to put away some music, 
and on returning to the auditorium of the church, one of 
the ladies of the choir was waiting for me to learn about 
the time appointed for a rehearsal, which was to be held 
during the following week. As we talked she stood on the 
side of the door-sill within the church and I on the side 
of the library. After a brief conversation we shook hands, 



Tin: LIFE OF moi.i.h; FANCHEk. I05 

said good-night, she going her own way, and I direct to 
the bedside of Miss Fanchcr. 

The instances I have mentioned all indicate that Miss 
Fancherwas in a trance state at the time of the occurrence. 
I am convinced, however, that it is not at all times neces- 
sary for her to be in that condition to exercise the 
phenomena of so-called second sight. I have seen it 
manifested on several occasions, two of which being 
distinct on my memory. I will relate them. On Easter 
Sunday night, 1887, 1 had called at her home for a few mo- 
ments, after evening service at church. There were also 
present a few others of her friends. We were all engaged 
in general conversation, when Miss Fancher exclaimed, 
" There are flowers at the door." A moment after the 
door-bell rang, and a large basket of flowers was brought 
to her, having been sent from the Emanuel Baptist Church, 
of which she is a member. The flowers sent were part of 
those used in the decoration of the church on that day. 

The further incident to which I allude may seem a little 
ludicrous, but for the sake of exactness I will narrate it 
just as it occurred. 

It was some three or four years ago. It happened that 
one evening I was in her room when the gas was turned 
rather low, as is usually the case, a glare of light being 
painful to her. I held in my hand a little trinket of jew- 
elry, which accidentally dropped on the floor and rolled 
away. Owing to the semi-darkness I could not have seen 
it anyway. She laughed at my awkwardness, and said, " I 
see it." That statement puzzled me, as she was lying 
with her face in the opposite way from which I had sup- 
posed it rolled; and in any event I could not understand 
how she could have seen it any better than I, owing to 
the darkness. I therefore questioned her ability to see it. 
"Well," she said, "do as I tell you and see if I am not 
right." "All right," I said. "Don't turn up the gas," 



Io6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

said she, " but get down on your hands and knees on the 
floor," and like children, it was agreed that we should 
adopt the hide-and-seek plan, she to indicate to me after 
the manner of the old game of. hot or cold, i. e., if I was 
far away I was "cold;" if nearing it I was "growing 
warmer." So I dropped on all fours, just where I was, 
and she said I was cold. I moved in another direction 
and she said I w T as freezing. I turned again and got 
warmer, and with every change of direction she indicated 
my success by the temperature ; finally I got "hot" and 
my eye rested on it, but to further test her power I went 
away. She was in great glee, and entered into the sport 
with all the zest of childhood, and said I was getting cold 
once more. Then I moved toward it, and asked where 
my hand was then; she said, " Very hot," then I put my 
hand on it and asked again, when she said, " You have it." 
During all this time she had not changed her position nor 
looked in that direction. Furthermore, had she done so, 
it would have been useless, so far as ordinary sight was 
concerned, for the position of the trinket on the floor w T as 
about six inches from the foot of the bed, and the top of 
the foot-board was at least twelve inches above her head, 
in the position in which she was lying. 

GEORGE F. SARGENT. 



The following was found in the handwriting of " Pearl " 
some years ago, in the bed of Miss Fancher, and speaks 
her feelings as she awakes to consciousness in most touch- 
ing language. I have entitled it 

Light Amid the Darkness. 

" I am not going to write a book or a story ; only the 
heart's history and experiences of a life that has come 
truly out of the darkness. My first awakening to this 



THE LIFE OK MOLT. IE FANCHEK. 107 

earth life — let me see if I can remember — Oh! yes. Ji 
was a cold, cold night in the winter months — what month 
I am unable to name, it matters not— only just how I 
came here and just where I came from, I am to this day 
in doubt, and a mystery surrounds the opening of my life. 
As I said, one cold winter's night, the gas was burning low, 
the windows thrown open as if some one was in need of 
air. The moonlight was beaming in upon me, when I first 
opened my eyes to what ? Was it life ? Was I living ? 
It will be impossible for me ever to describe the sensa- 
tions I had when I first found myself here. Where had I 
dropped from ? Where was I ? And where was I going 
and what was my life ? What did it all mean ? I ques- 
tioned in silence. And yet sometimes as I now look back 
and try to recall or solve the mystery of my new life, I 
can only think, and could imagine how a lost soul would 
feel, to fold your hands in slumber and awaken in the 
arms of Jesus and in Heaven. I was thus bewildered and 
for the moment thought I was in Heaven. I should have 
thought so longer, but sharp pains, intense agony and 
struggling for breath told me I was still on earth. For 
over there in Heaven there is no pain or sorrow, and I 
suffered all that. Then it was I realized it was not 
Heaven with my mamma. Oh, mamma, you know how oft 
I have implored you to take me with thee and at home. 
This is a long prelude to a small affair. Why am I writing 
these lines? No other eyes but mine will read them. 
They are not for critics to look upon and pass their judg- 
ment thereon. Oh ! no. I'll tell you why I am writing ; 
it is to relieve a lonely heart — for I am alone. But I 
must proceed with my story. Take up the thread again, 
and yet I pause for want of words to explain my feelings. 
This cold night when my eyes opened after a few moments' 
silence, a voice said, "And who is this ' Sunbeam,' 'Idol ' 
or 'Rosebud ' ?" 



o8 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Concerning the Statement of Mrs. Sarah E. 

TOWNSEND AND CLAIRVOYANCE. 

The following statement, kindly furnished for this pub- 
lication by Mrs. Thomas S. Townsend, of New York City, 
is of much importance. It will bear thoughtful reading. 
The evidence of Miss Fancher's extraordinary clairvoy- 
ant powers is so voluminous that no additional testimony 
could well add to its conclusiveness. In this statement 
of Mrs. Townsend are two instances where Miss Fancher 
exercised her clairvoyant powers to a degree almost un- 
paralleled. The instance where she saw and heard cor- 
rectly, what was transpiring in Cornwall, unmistakably 
shows that while her friends were fifty miles away from 
her home, she was holding such relations to them as en- 
abled her to both see what they were doing and hear dis- 
tinctly what they were saying. 

The question she asked while entranced at that moment, 
clearly shows that her vocal organs were responding to 
her mental question, "How do you like them ?" She says, 
" I did try so hard to make them see and hear me." The 
effort caused her lips to utter the question while lying 
upon her bed. Though she failed to make her friends in 
Cornwall conscious of her presence, she does not fail to 
show that she was present with them at that time. One 
of the lessons we are learning from the life of Miss 
Fancher is, that a consciousness may at times be had, of 
transactions in places, distant from the body to which 
that consciousness is related by the ties of this life, and 
hence, " being present," may signify far more than that 
language usually imports. 



THE LIFE OF iMOLLIE FANCHER. 109 

If, while still related to her body upon its bed in 
Brooklyn, her spiritual powers instantly carried her to 
Cornwall, where she both saw and heard her friends as if 
they were present with her body in her own room, the 
natural and reasonable conclusion follows, that man has a 
soul, and can exercise its faculties without the immediate 
presence of the body, under peculiar conditions, and that 
distance and material objects are not obstacles to the 
spirit, as they are to the body. Miss Fancher has lived 
long in the greatest suffering from pain and physical tor- 
ture, and thousands of times so nearly has the silvery 
cord of life been severed that she has been seemingly 
dead. Thousands of persons have looked upon her wan 
and rigid features, when her body could have been pierced 
with -needles and burned with fire with no sensations of 
pain to her, so nearly was the conscious part of her being, 
the soul, released. These tests have often been applied 
to her body by her physicians, while she was in her trance 
conditions, with no response whatever. 

We are here taught what has long been claimed and 
believed by millions of persons of all creeds and faiths, 
that the soul cannot be tortured by physical sufferings, 
when it has once severed its relations to the body. It 
also teaches us that while still holding relations to the 
body sufficiently strong to awaken again its dormant 
faculties it may enter realms invisible to us, or places re- 
mote from us, and witness what is transpiring there, and 
hear what others cannot hear, who are with the body. 

The incident transpiring at the street door is im- 
portant, as showing that Miss Fancher's powers of clair- 
audience are not confined to her trance conditions. People 
read their Bibles and believe the seers and prophets pos- 
sessed the powers they are there recorded as having exer- 
cised. There is nowhere in either the Old or New Testa- 
ment, any authority for the belief so commonly entertained, 



HO THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

that the powers exercised by the seers is limited to any class 
Of persons or to any age. On the contrary, the tendency 
of the Scriptures is the other way. When Peter stood up 
in defence of the manifestations attending the works of the 
disciples, he pointed the unbelieving multitude to the proph- 
esies which were then being fulfilled. (Acts, chapter 2.) 

Emanuel Swedenborg's wonderful powers of clair- 
voyance enabled him to witness the burning of Stockholm 
while he was in England, but the almost continuous pos- 
session of that gift by Miss Fancher for so many years, 
makes her case unique and wonderful. 

Mrs. Townsend says: 

When I first knew Mollie she had been six years in 
bed, and Mr. Townsend made her acquaintance about six 
weeks later. We both became much attached to her. I 
used to pass one day and night with her every week ; Mr, 
Townsend would come and stay the night with me. At one 
time, in the seventh or eighth year of her illness, Mollie's 
brother, now dead, was taken ill, and Miss Crosby went to 
his home at Cornwall, on the Hudson, so I was a good 
deal with Mollie, taking care of her. 

Opposite to where she lives resided Mr. and Mrs. Park- 
hurst. That lady and I were seated with her on the day 
that Miss Crosby had left, when suddenly Mollie went 
into a perfectly rigid trance. We said, as we always did 
on such occasions, " Mollie has gone away ! " By-and-by 
she exclaimed : " How do you like them ?" In half an 
hour she drew a deep sigh and came out of the trance. 
W T e asked, " Where have you been ?" 

"I have been to Aunt Susie (Miss Crosby), and I 
did try so hard to make them see and hear me." 

" What were they doing?" 

" Why, they were looking at the presents that we sent 
them, and I asked her (meaning the wife of Mollie's 
brother) how she liked them. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. Ill 

Mollie then described how she had seen each person in 
the house at Cornwall, what they were doing and what 
they said. When we asked her how she had gone ana 
returned, she said, " Partly by railway and partly by tele- 
graph ! " (Surely a joke of Mollie's.) When Miss Crosby 
returned home we asked her to describe how things had 
been, and what had been done and said on the evening of 
her arrival in Cornwall. She gave a full account, and 
it corresponded to all that Mollie had said, whereupon she 
exclaimed : " Didn't I tell you so ?" 

The strangest thing about her is the many changes 
that she goes through. Of course it is well known that for 
the first nine years she could keep nothing solid in her 
stomach. I am positive that she kept nothing in her 
stomach, and, in fact, could not swallow during the first 
years that I knew her. She used to call Mr. Townsend 
and me " Papa and Mamma Tom." 

The light distressed her nerves so much that she had 
her room nearly dark, so that I found it difficult to thread 
my needle. But she would say, " Oh, do give it to me, 
Mamma Tom," and in an instant would have it threaded. 
Whenever I lost anything she told me just where it was, 
and if anything was missing in Miss Crosby's house, Mol- 
lie would go into a momentary cataleptic trance, and would 
sit upright, which I always loved to see, stretching out 
her arms and saying, " There it is ! I see it," then fall 
helpless immediately if we did not sustain her. I have 
not seen Mollie once for the last few months. I have 
never seen her sit upright except in the trance ; she 
always has to be propped up. I do not see how she could 
sit up with her spine as it is. 

She made most beautiful wax flowers, and I showed 
her how to make the leaves. She learned with astonish- 
ing rapidity, for she is remarkably clever. She said that 
some times she saw through her forehead, at others the 



112 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

top of her head seemed to be full of light, and occasion- 
ally it was hard for her to see anything at all. 

She used to put sealed letters under her pillow and read 
them ; sometimes she read by rubbing her hand over them, 
and I have seen her read books in the same way. 

Very few people have any idea how much Mollie has 
suffered, and yet she has been such a help to others. I 
Know a prominent minister who frequently went to her, 
and to me he said very frankly, " I do not come to help 
Mollie, but to gather strength and consolation from her." 

There were times when Mollie could not hear unless we 
directed our voice up her nostrils, as she instructed us ; 
and when her heart beat with frightful violence she told 
us to breathe on it, for that relieved her. 

It was while I was taking care of Mollie that an agent 
came from Barnum, who had read newspaper articles about 
her. He wanted to exhibit Mollie. I talked to the agent 
at the street door, and felt very indignant and angry. 
Mollie could not hear us from where she was, but she 
afterwards repeated all the conversation to me. When I 
had shut out the agent and went upstairs again, I found 
Mollie not angry, but laughing. She said : " Just think of 
it, Madam Tom ; imagine me exhibiting myself for twenty- 
five cents ? I am glad you were so firm with him. Had 
you not been here he would have certainly got in somehow 
or other." 

I was with Mollie when the change took place in her 
after those nine years, and it was all very painful. The 
change took place gradually in about two weeks, during 
which time Mollie frequently wept and said that some- 
thing dreadful was going to happen to her. One night 
the climax came, and then I saw Mollie's eyes for the first 
time. They suddenly flashed wide open, and never have 
I seen anything more beautiful, for though sightless, she 
appeared perfectly angelic. That night was something 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 113 

never to be forgotten. She was wonderful ; and she 
seemed to be on a stage gesticulating with one small hand, 
and then she sang most beautifully. For several days 
Mollie was in an unconscious state and we supposed she 
was dying. When she came out of it everyone and every- 
thing was strange to her. She did not even know her 
aunt. All her surroundings distressed her, and it took 
her a long time to become reconciled to them. We were 
entirely unknown to her. When Mr. Townsend approached 
her with his accustomed friendly solicitude, she drew her- 
self away as if she considered him very impertinent. We 
had to begin the acquaintance all over again, and she 
never again addressed us as " Papa and Mama Tom." 
But in that second state she used to call me " Lady 
Townsend." 

I have seen so much of Mollie and her strange powers, 
that nothing extraordinary seems to stand out saliently 
apart from the rest. I love Mollie very tenderly, and 
would do anything to serve her. I think that before she 
dies, Mollie will return to her original self; as I first 
knew her. 

SARAH E. TOWNSEND. 
New York, July 16, 1893. 



The unsuccessful effort of Miss Fancher to make 
her presence known to her friends in Cornwall, suggests 
to the mind of the author, the frequently recorded in- 
stances where persons are claimed to have been seen 
at two places remote from each other at the same moment. 
These alleged occurrences have given rise to the theory of 
the " double," which is, that man is a duplex being, and 
the fact of his being seen at two places at the same 
moment can be explained upon no other theory. Psychical 



114 THE LIFE 0F MOLLIE FANCHER. 

societies in Europe and in this country, for several years 
have been collecting and collating all the testimony upon 
this and similar subjects possible. Students of Psychical 
Science will do well to obtain from Prof. Richard Hodgson, 
of No. 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass., Secretary of the 
American branch of the Society for Psychical Research of 
Great Britain, the proceedings of that society. Psychology 
is now unmistakably recognized as a scientific study, and, 
as it bears more directly than any other upon the relations 
of the mental and spiritual parts of man to the physical 
parts, it is fast becoming an important and interesting 
subject for study and investigation. 

The recorded instances of the exercise of the remark- 
able powers of Miss Fancher, which the reader will find in 
these pages, will afford abundant material for careful con- 
sideration. Let no reader hastily reject the testimony 
here placed before him. It is an adage, that " Whatever 
man has done, man can do." It has been verified too 
often to be disputed now. There is nothing which man 
has done in- the past which he may not do now. He 
is a silly man who believes that nature is not true to 
herself. ' Her laws do not change. When we read or hear 
of anything which seemingly sets the laws of nature at 
naught, we may safely assume that the seeming mystery 
can and will be ultimately explained, and that the process 
by which strange results have been produced will be 
discovered. Phenomena which have not been explained 
may eventually be explained, and it is far better to 
seek out and make known the processes of nature than to 
attribute them to the direct act of unseen and unstable 
beings. In saying this, the author has no desire to be un- 
derstood as urging the idea that man can comprehend or 
explain all that is presented to him in the ever-occurring 
phenomena of nature. He is now, and let us hope ever 
will be, environed by unfathomable mystery. As he will 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. ^5 

never comprehend himself, how much less will he compre- 
hend the great universe of which he is a part, and in the 
midst of which he is a burning, glowing fire of intellectual 
light, peering into and looking upon his surroundings with 
wonderand amazement. The handiwork of Deity becomes 
more grand, and His dealings with His children can 
be best reconciled with man's conceptions of justice, 
by looking upon all things as subject alike to unchanging 
laws. Can He, who is All and in all, do violence to Him- 
self? Can He set Himself at naught? God is in nature, 
and is to nature all her laws. We learn to know more 
of Him, and grow to love Him better, as we enter more 
fully and perfectly into a knowledge of His works. And 
where shall we be stayed ? Who hath set bounds beyond 
which we may not go ? Are there mysteries too sacred to 
be inquired into ? Bigotry and ignorance are akin. 
Knowledge is to man as the sun to the world he dwells 
in. A truly enlightened man can be neither a tyrant nor 
a slave. The soul of man corresponds to his enlighten- 
ment. The man who does wrong thereby shows a lack in 
some part of a well-educated mind, and of a well-rounded 
nature. Man is rising from grosser conditions to a more 
perfectly developed being. 

Religion should release him from all limitations in the 
pursuit of knowledge. Arbitrary standards can never be 
justified except for the security and well-being of society. 
The spiritual nature of man, and his relations to humanity 
and the world he lives in, as well to the Deity, should 
be studied and understood, if such a thing be possible. 
However imperfect the beginning may be, anything and 
everything which can enlighten him, should not be feared 
but earnestly desired. The lessons we can learn from 
a knowledge of the experiences, acts and powers mani- 
fested in the life of Miss Fancher, are essential and 
valuable to a better understanding of the nature and 



Il6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

powers of man. In the preceding remarks, it has not 
been the desire of the writer, to do more than seek to 
obtain from the reader a careful consideration of the 
remarkable phases of Miss Fancher's case. He does not 
flatter himself that his efforts will be entirely successful. 
He anticipates the adverse criticism of just such people 
as was the eminent Dr. Beard, of New York city, who, in 
his conceit, declared Miss Fancher a fraud, and that the 
clairvoyant power was possessed by none. But later on, 
in his greater wisdom, he learned that he had stultified 
himself, and humbly, to his credit be it said, asked her to 
forgive him. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. It? 



CHAPTER XV. 



Statement of Mr. Thomas S. Townsend. 

Mr. Thomas S. Townsend, of The Newport, Broadway 
and Fifty-second street, N. Y., says : 

Before the first change took place in Mollie's condi- 
tion, and while Mrs. Townsend had the care of her, during 
her aunt's absence at Cornwall, I went to the house every 
day about half-past three o'clock and remained until next 
morning. On one occasion a lady, acting as secretary for 
me, met me at the Wall Street Ferry with some papers 
which were importaut for me to have immediately. It 
being a beautiful afternoon in the month of June, I in- 
vited her to take a sail across the river. She did so and 
walked up Montague street with me to Fulton street, 
where she took a car for the Fulton Ferry, while I took 
another for the other direction — to Mollie's — arriving 
there soon after four o'clock. About seven o'clock of 
that evening Mollie said to me, "Who came across the 
ferry with you this afternoon ?" 

Mrs. Townsend then said, that about half-past three 
o'clock, Mollie had been in a trance, and while in that 
condition she noticed an expression of amusement in her 
countenance, and when she again came to herself, Mrs. 
Townsend inquired what she had seen that was so funny. 
Mollie would give her no satisfaction. But after having 
inquired of me, "Who came across the ferry ?" she ad- 
mitted having seen the lady, and gave the name of the 
person referred to. 

THOMAS S. TOWNSEND. 
New York, July, 1893. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



Statement of Mrs. Emily Blossom, Residing at 

the corner of atlantic and clinton 

Streets, Brooklyn. 

Judge A. H. Dailey : 

Dear Sir. — In answer to your request for a statement 
touching my acquaintance with Miss Fancher, and what I 
have witnessed which may be of public interest regarding 
her case, I beg to state as follows : 

My husband and myself have long been among her 
most intimate friends. She used to address us by the 
endearing terms, " Uncle Joe " and "Aunt Em." 

Mr. Blossom, who died six years ago, had very inter- 
esting experiences with Mollie. Upon one occasion, 
while he was seated by her bed, a letter was brought to 
her. She placed it beneath her pillow without opening it, 
and read it off. Mr. Blossom then said, " Now, Mollie, 
you let me open that letter and read it to myself so that 
you cannot see it, while you repeat it to me word for word 
if you can." Mollie agreed, and read it without making 
one mistake. Once while we were visiting her, her pet 
squirrel disappeared and we could find it nowhere, but 
Mollie said it was in the next room under the bed. That 
room was quite dark, but we went in and under Moliie's 
directions chased the squirrel from corner to corner till 
we captured it. Yes, I have seen Mollie in all her condi- 
tions, five, I think, and as she does not know her various 
selves, I suggested that she should write notes to the 
other Mollies. This was on one occasion when she woke 
up from a trance and said to me, " Mollie number one is 
very much afraid because she is alone." I inquired why 
she was alone, and said that she should write notes to the 
other Mollies and ask them. On July ist, 1893, I visited 
Mollie and she sat up in bed as she has lately done more 



i iik life of Mollie fancher. i kj 

than once. She took lunch with me, very daintily, but 
she ate something; while at one time, for nine years* 
nothing entered her stomach. She could not swallow, the 
muscles of her throat were completely contracted. She 
would sometimes take a mouthful of ice cream ; some- 
thing which does not now agree with her, or any other 
little thing that would easily melt, and the whole of it 
would be absorbed by the membranes of her mouth. 

Yours sincerely, 

EMILY BLOSSOM. 
Brooklyn, July n, 1893. 



Statement by Mr. Herbert Blossom. 

I have known Mollie Fancher since 1872, when I was 
very young, and saw a good deal of her from that time to 
the year 1881, but after that only once or twice up to 1888, 
since which time I have seen her occasionally. When 
I was first acquainted with Mollie she was very loath 
to show any of her strange powers, but she used to tell me 
of things that happened in my own room. I remember 
that when I was a boy, I was in the habit of sitting up 
reading at night, and she made me promise that I would 
go to bed at ten o'clock. One night I forgot myself, and 
when I closed the book and looked at the clock it was 
a quarter to eleven. Next time I saw Mollie she asked 
me what time I had gone to bed that same night. I said 
about ten o'clock. But she said, " No ; I was there, and it 
was a quarter to eleven." 

I used to take newspapers to her, and she would 
just lay her hand on them and tell me all the news they 
contained ; then I would unfold them, read, and find her 
quite correct. 



120 THE LIFE OF MOLLlE FANCHER. 

Nine years of her life are a blank to her ; when she 
came out of that state she did not know me ; I had to 
make her acquaintance over again. When there was no 
one else to take care of her I would pass the night watch- 
ing by her, and as her many conditions generally come on 
her in the night, she now knows me in all of them except 
one. When she woke up in that fifth condition one night 
she said to me : "Well, and who are you ?" 

During the last year I have seen her in all her different 
states, from Mollie Number i to Mollie Number 5. In 
fact, during one night, I saw her pass through them all 
without any convulsion, merely a deep-drawn sigh between 
each, while generally the convulsions are violent. She 
displays different characteristics in each, and I always 
have to wait to hear what she says so that I may know 
which Mollie is talking to me. In one of her conditions 
she is very gay and witty. In each, she remembers what 
has occurred in the same condition, but nothing of the 
various others. In one she speaks, thinks and acts like a 
child six years old ; for several months she went into that 
state for a short time in every twenty-four hours. It may 
not be really the case, but it has seemed to me, that when 
I have been sitting by her side and talking to her all 
night, she has not gone into those conditions so much as 
when she was left alone. When I have been sleeping 
on the sofa, her spasms have sometimes been so violent 
that the shaking of the floor has awakened me. Between 
each spasm she would be a different Mollie, and in the 
morning her vitality was very low. When she came out of 
her cataleptic states, I used to ask her what she had seen 
but she would seldom say a word about it. When I asked 
how it was that she could see everything, she said she 
seemed to see through her forehead above her eyes. 

Mollie has been a great sufferer. Many years ago, she 



Jill'. Ul'K (>[•' IVtOLLIE lAXCIlI'.R. 12 1 

told me that she never had a moment free from pain. 
Her heart would often beat so hard that you could see the 
bedclothes throb. She has always been good and patient. 
Sometimes when I have been there persons have come 
to tell her of their own little troubles, and it seemed to me 
that they were so trifling compared with hers, yet she 
always endeavored to comfort those who came to her for 
consolation. 

Mollie really is a wonderful person, very clever, and in 
her patient endurance and kind thoughtfulness of other 
people, she is certainly a beautiful character. All through 
her long years of illness she has never been emaciated 
about her throat and neck ; she has been and is very 
plump. This used to be a source of surprise to me. 
Again and again I have watched Mollie in spasms, and she 
continuously rolled her head on the pillow from side to 
side for a quarter of an hour at a time ; she also violently 
pounded her chest so that in the morning it would be 
bruised. 

I am asked to state what I recall with reference to her 
having seen Mr. Sargent while in one of her trances. I 
remember that I was watching with her one night while 
Mr. Sargent was away in Muskegon, Michigan, where he 
had gone to organize a company for the manufacture 
of furniture for invalids, in which Mollie was interested. 
Mollie went into a deep trance for some time ; all evidence 
of animation being absent, as usual in her trances. When 
she returned to consciousness and I asked where she had 
been, she informed me that she had in her trance been to 
see Mr. Sargent, and said that he was in a large room 
with a number of persons about him, and on a platform or 
stage, and was singing. I felt sure that she was mistaken, 
and told her so; but she said, " We will wait and see." 
When Mr. Sargent returned, I learned from him that upon 



in the Life of mollie fancher. 

the night she was in the trance he was engaged in singing, 
and that her description of what she had seen was entirely 
correct. 

HERBERT BLOSSOM. 
Brooklyn, July it, 1893. 



18 Sidney Place, \ 

Brooklyn, L. I., > 

July 6th, 1893. ) 
Judge Abram H. Dailey : 

Dear Sir. — I was introduced to Miss Fancher a few 
years ago by the eminent scholar, Dr. C. E. West, in whose 
seminary Mollie was about to graduate, just before the 
terrible accident which prostrated her. I have frequently 
visited her with my husband, Dr. LePlongeon, who, as a 
physician, was much interested in her case. He found it 
a most extraordinary one, and told the patient that it 
would not surprise him if a time should come when she 
would again stand on her feet. 

We are convinced that Mollie sees quite clearly, though 
her eyes are sightless. On one occasion we took photos 
to show her. With closed eyelids, and the room nearly 
dark, she passed comments on the pictures, even pointing 
out a portrait of myself in a very small group, where my 
face was hardly bigger than the head of a common pin ; 
we had not told her that my figure was there. 

She had a pet cat named Sarah Bernhardt. When it 
entered the room, noiseless, as those creatures are, she 
would exclaim, " Here comes Sarah Bernhardt ! " 

One Sunday afternoon, while I talked with her, a heavy 
storm came on. Mollie immediately said, " What a pity ! 
that dress of yours will be spoiled." 

"Why, Mollie," said I, "you do not know what my 
dress is like." 



NIK I, UK OF MOLLlfi 1 AM HI R. i 2j 

"Yes, I do ; it is a silver-gray satin." 

Her description was correct, and I was much surprised. 

We never grew tired of admiring the marvelous wax 
flowers made by Miss Fancher, and one afternoon her de- 
voted aunt, Miss Crosby, showed us some exquisite por- 
tieres worked by Mollie. They were garnet plush, em- 
broidered with silk, old gold, emerald green, pearl gray, 
pure white, and a rich brown. The design was elaborate, 
executed with wondrous skill and taste, the work being 
perfect and the blending of colors most artistic. The 
garnet velvet was faced with old gold silk. These por- 
tieres can be seen at No. 30 St. James' Place, Brooklyn, 

L. I., the home of Mr. L . There also is a most 

beautiful lambrequin, made by the same deft and really 
lovely little hands. The Passion-flower is the design on 
the lambrequin, that flower having been greatly admired 
and cultivated by the gentleman mentioned. He inter- 
ested himself in finding purchasers for some of Mollie's 
fine work, and it was he who told us of a lady who saw 
Mollie sketch with great rapidity a beautiful spray of 
roses, then select needles and silks, thread them without 
any hesitation and quickly complete the work in the most 
perfect manner, her eyes being fast shut. The lady said, 
" Oh, Mollie, your eyes are in the ends of your fingers." 
Mollie only laughed, and when the piece of work was com- 
pleted, gave it to the lady to insert in a crazy quilt which 
the lady herself was making and yet has in her possession. 

When Mr. L. kindly allowed us to examine the portieres 
now in his house he said : " I have known Mollie fourteen 
years, and have seen many puzzling things for which I 
cannot find any logical explanation. She certainly sees 
with precision, though her physicians say that her optic 
nerves are destroyed. But she has always hesitated to 
show her powers." 

It surprises me that Mollie could, while lying on her 



i24 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

back, have worked on such a large piece of goods as the 
portieres, and have produced such a fine general effect, 
without having the whole thing spread out before her. 
She must have had the work, in its completed form, before 
her mental vision. 

Having been frequently absent from Brooklyn, we have 
not visited Mollie as much as we might otherwise have 
done, but we are convinced of her genuineness, her great 
sufferings, and have often admired her ready sympathy 
for others less afflicted than herself. Being thoroughly 
unselfish, she prefers to speak of anybody or of anything 
rather than of herself. Apart from the interest attached 
to her phenomenal condition, she is a gifted and lovable 
woman, worthy of the esteem and affection of her fellow- 
beings, and is tenderly regarded by those who know her 
intimately. 

Very truly yours, 

ALICE D. LePLONGEON. 

Brooklyn, July n, 1893. 



Statement of Joseph S. Harley relative to his experi- 
ences with Miss Mollie Fancher : 

978 Bedford Avenue, 
Brooklyn, July 15, 1893. 

I have known Miss Mollie Fancher 15 or 16 years. I 
am an engraver. I have visited her on an average about 
once a week all these years. 

Our conversation is often very general, and she seems 
to know what is going on as well as do persons who have 
the use of their senses and are walking or traveling around 
the city. For instance, upon one occasion she asked me, 
" What is that large building down there on Bedford, near 
Lafayette avenue — are they stores?" I said, "Synagogue. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 25 

What do you know about it?" She laughed and said 
" Why do you ask me such a question ? Don't I know as 
much about it as you do?" I have seen Mollie Fancher's 
several selves, or the ones who come and are said to be a 
part of her life. Her aunt told me to come and stay late 
enough to see the other Mollies. I came and saw one 
come. The Mollie whom I had first seen went into a 
trance and then appeared to wake up, and her eyes were 
opened. I had to be introduced to her. She had been 
told of my coming and was expecting me. She asked me 
if I knew the old Mollie. I said yes. She appeared quite 
jealous of the old Mollie. She asked me how long I had 
known her, and said she wanted to stay and see her some 
time. At one time the one who appears to be a little 
child came. She talked and acted as a little child. She 
asked her aunt, "A stranger?" and her aunt told her I 
was the one she had spoken of coming, and she said, " Oh, 
yes." She asked was I married and about my children, if 
I had any. She said, " I wish mamma would come ; she 
stays so late to-night." Then she said, 4< I will have to 
go," and she went into a trance. 

I know she distinguishes colors by placing her hands 
on them. The Mollie I usually see, complained that the 
other Mollies got, opened and read her letters, and 
said she was going to wait and see them some time. 

JOSEPH S. HARLEY. 



Mr. Howard S. Jones, The Alameda, 385 Franklin avenue, 
Brooklyn, says : 
" I have seen Mollie in her cataleptic trances, quite 
frequently. While I was talking with her she would sud- 
denly become stiff, in whatever posture she had assumed. 
I have seen her in four of her conditions, and she presents 
a distinct personality in each, I have no theory or idea 



126 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

as to how this could be explained, but Mollie is certainly 
a wonderful being. Yes, I have seen her as little ' Rose- 
bud,' the six year old child. Mollie is becoming much 
more natural than she used to be. She now moves all the 
upper part of her body quite freely, and her lower limbs, 
though not straight, are no longer entwined as they were 
when Mrs. Jones first knew her. My wife was then only 
twelve years old. If she were here she would herself tell 
you, that formerly, she had seen Mollie's lower limbs to- 
gether in three twists ; her arm too was at that time up- 
lifted, so that her hand was at the back of her neck and 
.her eyelids were closed very firmly. Yet she always saw 
distinctly, as she proved to me over and over again. 
When I was in the room about ten feet from her and it 
was quite dark where she lay, she would describe what I 
was wearing, even finger rings. One afternoon when Mrs. 
Jones was with her, there was a tadpole in a glass case 
containing fishes. The room was nearly dark and the 
creatures very small, but Mollie, with closed eyes, fol- 
lowed its movements exclaiming: 'There it goes! Now 
it is swimming up to the top ! ' etc. 

I think very highly of Mollie's character and she is 
very clever." 

HOWARD S. JONES. 

Brooklyn, July 21, 1893. 



Rev. Dr. Edward Braislin, No. 15 Lefferts-place, Brooklyn, 
says : 
I have known Miss Mollie Fancher a long time, and 
have always been much interested in her, but have not 
made any close or scientific study of her case. I have seen 
her in one of her night states, or what she calls other 
Mollies. Her eyes were then wide open, and she claimed 
to know nothing of what had happened in the day. She 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 27 

did not recognize me and I had to be newly introduced to 
her ; apparently she had no knowledge whatever of our 
former acquaintance. On that occasion, her eyes being 
wide open, she told me that she had no power of vision, 
but was absolutely blind. I tested her eyes then, and it 
is the only time I have done so, holding a lighted lamp 
close to them. As far as my knowledge goes, I should say 
they were perfectly well formed, but the pupil instead of 
contracting only contracted and dilated alternately to its 
utmost capacity, the eyelids remaining fixedly open, while 
the full light was pouring steadily on the orbs, so that if 
the glare acted on them at all, it acted in a very erratic 
way ; but I got the impression that Mollie was quite 
blind, as otherwise the light which I held to them must 
have caused her acute pain. I know Mollie well in her 
normal state, if the term normal can at any time be applied 
to her, and I consider her sincerity unquestionable. If 
she is mistaken in any matter regarding herself, she does 
not knowingly deceive anyone. I esteem her very highly. 

EDWARD BRAISLIN. 
Brooklyn, July, 1893. 



Mill River, Berkshire Co., Mass., 
July 8th, 1893. 

Having been requested by Judge A. H. Dailey, to cer- 
tify over my own signature to certain incidents on the 
occasion of my visit to Miss Mollie Fancher, I willingly 
do so by stating as follows : 

Some three years ago I visited Judge Dailey at his 
home, 451 Washington avenue, City of Brooklyn. We 
were old acquaintances. I came from Massachusetts and 
spent the night with him. About 11 o'clock at night I re- 
tired to my room, Judge Dailey accompanying me, where 
we spent quite a while in conversation. 



128 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

I had never seen Mollie Fancher, but had heard of her. 

I was subsequently informed by Judge Dailey, that 
Miss Fancher claimed to have seen us together in that 
room that night, and to have correctly described my 
personal appearance. During the last winter, with my 
brother-in-law, Mr. Edward T. Blodgett, I called again 
upon Judge Dailey for a social visit. Duriug the evening 
I expressed a desire to some time see Miss Fancher ; 
whereupon Judge Dailey volunteered to take us to her 
home that evening, as it was but a few blocks away. 
When we entered Miss Fancher's room, the Judge asked 
her if she recognized either of us, Blodgett or myself. 
She said that we had never been there before. After a 
few seconds thought she said, that she had never seen 
Mr. Blodgett before, but I was the man she saw in her 
trance some years before at Judge Dailey's house ; that 
I had a full beard and other things descriptive that were 
quite correct. 

I will further add, that Judge Dailey was not aware of 
our intention to call upon him, until we came to his door, 
and I am quite positive that Miss Fancher could not have 
known of our coming until we entered her house. 

The visit was suggested and made on the impulse of 
the moment, and as unexpectedly to all of us as anything 

possibly could be. 

H. D. SISSON. 

I have read the above statement of a visit to Miss 

Mollie Fancher and know it to be correct. 

E. T. BLODGETT. 

State of Massachusetts, ) 
County of Berkshire, j 

Subscribed and sworn to this 8th day of July, 1893, 

before me 

EDWIN ADAMS, 

Justice of the Peace, 



THE LIKE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. I?9 

In connection with the foregoing statements of Mr. 
Sisson and Mr. Blodgett, it is proper for me to add that 
sometime in the early part of the year 1890, or latter part 
of 1889, I called one evening upon Miss Mollie Fancher, 
and found Mr. George F. Sargent and some other friends 
with her. Soon after I entered, Miss Fancher asked me 
to locate myself upon a certain night at 11 o'clock. After 
considerable reflection I told her I had done so. " Now," 
said she, " I will tell you where you were; you were in a 
back room in your house, with a tall dark complexioned 
man with a full beard. He was rather slender, and there 
was a bed in the room." She was correct; upon that 
night a friend of mine from New Marlboro, Mass., spent 
the night with me, and at the hour of 11 o'clock I was 
with him in his room, as he was about retiring. Miss 
Fancher then related to me, that upon that night she went 
into a trance at 11 o'clock, and went to my house and saw 
me with the gentleman she had described in the chamber 
where he was to sleep. Upon coming out of her trance 
she had related to Mr. Sargent, that she had seen me as 
stated. The gentleman Miss Fancher saw with me was 
Hon. H. D. Sisson. During the last winter Mr. Sisson 
and his brother-in-law, Mr. Blodgett, both strangers to 
Miss Fancher, called upon me and I accompanied them to 
her house. Upon entering I asked her if she had ever 
seen them before. She replied, " They have never been 
here before," and pointing to Mr. Blodgett, she said, " I 
have never seen him before, but," pointing to Mr. Sisson, 
she said, " that's the man I saw at your house that night." 
Mr. Sisson and Mr. Blodgett have more fully stated what 
transpired. A. H. D. 



The following instance of Miss Fancher's remarkable 
powers will be found of exceeding interest, inasmuch as it 
9 



130 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

is of very recent occurrence, and I have in my possession 
the original correspondence touching the same. Neither 
Miss Fancher nor Mr. Bishop, her correspondent, would 
likely be willing that I should publish in full the letters as 
they were written, because of many jolly expressions con- 
tained in each letter written by one to the other. 

Miss Fancher's letter reads as follows, in so far as I 
shall insert the same : 

"May 17th, 1893. Wednesday, A. M. 
My Dear Friend : 

I do not doubt you sent out a ' search,' and now I am 
sending out one also. What became of you ? You last 
wrote you would put in an appearance, and I looked and 
expected you. Then, of course, I did not write, for I 
thought you were coming. I have been very sick, before 
I received your letter and since, and that is the reason I 
have not answered. Is the apology accepted ? 

You seem to be in bad luck when you come to Brooklyn. 
You hurt your finger when you were in New York, and 
then you smashed your wrist. 

We have had a backward Spring, very cold, and now 
once more it is pleasant weather. I expect it looks lovely 
on the Island. The apples and cherries must be in blossom; 
the trees are budding fast since so much rain fell, and 
last week was so warm. 

How are you and all the family, and the nephew that 
called with you, and his family ? " 

She closes her letter by saying : 

" I trust you are well, happy and jolly as ever. I can 
see you standing or posing, wasn't that it, for a picture. 
With kind regard from 

MOLLIE FANCHER." 

The envelope to this letter I have in my possession, 
addressed to Mr. J. S t Bishop, Riverhead, L, I., Post- 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 131 

office box 561, and it is post marked May 17, 2 P. M., 
1893. 

The answer to that letter is dated Riverhead, May 18, 
1893, and commences : 

" Miss Mollie Fancher, 
Dear Friend : 

Your letter of the 17th inst. was appreciatively read." 
After referring to some personal matters, the writer uses 
this language : " You mention in your letter that you can 
see me standing for a picture ; well, I will tell you about it- 

On Monday, at 6 P. M., a photographer seated the 
hotel for a picture. He requested me to be included ; I 
complied with his request, and stood in front of, and 
leaned on one of the pillars that held and supported the 
veranda, and so I had my picture taken. If not too in- 
compatible with your best wishes and desires, and if you 
will not think I am too 'inquirous,' I shall be highly 
pleased to have you inform me how you knew I was hav- 
ing my resemblance copied. * * * * 

While dining to-day I told an intimate friend that I 
had received a letter from you. A young gentleman then 
sitting at my right looked up, and acted as though he was 
greatly astonished. He asked me if I was acquainted 
with you. I told him I was pleased to say, yes. He said 
he had the honor of knowing you also. He said his wife 
was your cousin. He handed me his card. 

The name of the photographer who took the photo- 
graph referred to is Dana Dawens." 

Mr. George F. Sargent wrote Mr. Bishop for the return 
of Miss Fancher's letter that it might be used in this con- 
nection. 

In inclosing it, Mr. Bishop writes as follows : 

" I have mentioned the incident to a large number of 
reputable people, and they all have said just as I did on 



I32 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

the receipt of your letter — it is something wonderful and 
far beyond human comprehension. 

The photographer was at the Griffin House a few 
minutes past 6 P. M., on Monday, May 15, and I received 
your letter in the evening mail of May 17th. I know to a 
' dead ' certainty that no one at this end of the line, 
apprised you that I was standing for a picture at the time 
you wrote to me about it. Now, Miss Mollie, I want you— 
'or any other man,' to understand that I want the (your) 
letters returned to me. With kind regards, I remain 

Yours hurriedly, 

J. S. BISHOP." 



Statement of William Kingman, Esq., of Brooklyn, 
N. Y. : 

" I am requested by Judge A. H. Dailey, to state an in- 
cident which occurred to my own knowledge with Miss 
Mollie Fancher. 

Some three or more years ago, I was residing in the 
family of Judge Dailey, and one evening he had an 
appointment to visit Miss Fancher at her house. It so 
happened that from business engagements, he was unable 
to keep his appointment, and wrote a note to Miss 
Fancher explaining the cause of his breach of engagement, 
and commissioned me to deliver it in person to her, 
which I was willing to do. I had never seen Miss Fancher, 
and Judge Dailey remarked to me, ' Mr. Kingman, many 
people would esteem it quite a privilege to get the 
opportunity to see Miss Fancher, which you now have.' 
I took the letter to her house, holding it sealed in my 
hand, and as I entered her room and was proceeding to a 
seat, Miss Fancher exclaimed, ' Oh, Mr. Sargent, Judge 
Dailey cannot come to-night, he is so very busy now, but 
will be around in a few days.' I then delivered her the 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANG HER. 1 33 

letter and she read it in nearly the identical language she 
had made use of, as I have already stated. 

WILLIAM KINGMAN, 

No. 131 Gate's Avenue, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Brooklyn, July 26th, 1893." 



Statement of Mr. Jeffrey Simmons. 

" Having enjoyed the personal acquaintance of Miss 
Mollie Fancher during the last five years, it may not be 
out of place for me to narrate some of the incidents to 
which my attention has been attracted from time to time 
while in her presence. 

Friendly feelings were established or found to exist 
between this lady and myself during my first brief call at 
her house, so, on taking my leave she kindly invited me to 
come again. 

Being intensely interested, I soon became a weekly 
visitor, and sometimes oftener, having been assured that I 
was at liberty to come whenever it suited my convenience. 
With that understanding I was treated more as a friend than 
as a visitor, that is, her work was not put aside to enter- 
tain me, nor did she hesitate to utilize my services when 
favorable opportunities were presented. It finally came 
about that she had a quantity of worsted to wind, so it 
fell to me to hold the skeins while she did the winding. 
It was by no means my first experience in that direction, 
though I soon realized that Mollie was an expert at dis- 
entangling snarls, that seemed to knot themselves up, 
without the slightest difficulty. 

With surprising deftness her nimble fingers would 
seize the right strand, and so manipulate it that the ball 
would soon be whirling again. 



134 rHE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

The absence of any hesitancy on her part, taken with 
existing conditions, was conclusive evidence to me that 
normal eyesight was not employed in the operation. Nor 
could normal eyesight have aided her in threading a fine 
needle, under circumstances and conditions in which I have 
frequently seen her do it, without any apparent effort. I 
can also corroborate what has been said by others, con- 
cerning her ability to see and recognize persons at a dis- 
tance or beyond the range of normal vision. 

This has been demonstrated on repeated occasions, 
when on going to her house, the moment I entered the 
hall, she would greet me from where she was lying in her 
room on the second floor, to reach wmich I must climb 
the stairs, pass through one room, and then turn in order 
to enter her apartment. 

At one time after being thus greeted, on coming into 
her presence, I said, ' Mollie, did you see me when I was 
down at the hall floor ? ' She said, ( Yes, had I not known 
it was you I would not have said what I did.' A 
person knowing her, can readily understand that she 
would not indulge in such familiarity without knowing 
to whom she was speaking. 

At the time I made the acquaintance of this interest- 
ing person, her store on the floor beneath her apartments, 
w r as occupied by a woman whose death occurred a year or 
two later on. 

Some relatives on being informed of the decease came 
on from Connecticut, I think, to attend the burial and to 
take charge of her effects. 

I knew nothing of this until after it had transpired, 
when one day following, on entering Mollie's room I met 
three persons leaving it. 

She informed me that they were relatives or heirs of 
her former tenant, and that they were desirous of closing 
up the business at once. 



the Life of mollie fancier. 135 

To accomplish their purpose, they had brought the 
books and papers belonging to the store and placed them 
on the bed within reach of Mollie, who had undertaken to 
perform that laborious and unpleasant task, and was pro- 
ceeding with as much deliberation as though she was 
familiar with the entire detail, and knew the significance 
of every item. 

At another time on coming into her presence, a 
light table having legs of a suitable length, so that when 
placed on the bed its top was raised so as not to rest on 
her person, was in that position. 

Spread upon its surface was a large sheet of drawing 
paper on which was displayed numerous lines and curves 
made with different colored pencils, which together with 
other implements used in drawing, were lying near. Act- 
ing on my first impulse, I said what are you doing ? To 
which she replied, that Mr. Sargent was anxious to have 
this drawing completed as soon as possible, and had 
worked upon it till very late last night, when he gave it 
up, and asked her to finish it for him to-day. This was 
said as though it was some ordinary work that any one 
might do if he felt so disposed. That suprising genius, 
manifested in so many ways, is in keeping with a high 
order of mentality, which aided by keen perception, en- 
ables her to grasp ideas and principles, and also to unfold 
and present them in a clear and logical style of reason- 
ing. 

Add to this an amiable disposition that inspires her to 
bear intense pain, with the heroic fortitude of a martyr, 
who can smile when suffering the pangs of death, and 
you have a faint picture of Mollie Fancher entertaining 
her friends, forgetful of herself, while endeavoring to make 
their visits pleasing to them. 

825 Lafayette avenue, JEFFREY SIMMONS. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., November 17, 1893." 



136 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



Statement of Louis Sherk. 

451 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

November 1st, 1893. 
Judge A. H. Dailey, 

Dear Sir: — My first acquaintance with Miss Mollie 
Fancher dates from 1878, when I unexpectedly visited 
her upon an invitation extended to me by her aunt, Miss 
Crosby, who had never seen me, but knew of me through 
my brother, who had treated Miss Fancher magnetically 
by -request of Dr. Speir. My brother is now dead. 

When I called, it was upon a dark and stormy day. I 
was wrapped in a cloak, wearing a slouch hat. As I en- 
tered the hall, on the floor below, I heard my name called 
to come up stairs. I did so, and this was the first time that I 
had seen either Miss Crosby or Miss Fancher. I asked 
Miss Crosby how she knew who I was, and she said that 
Mollie had told her while I was down at the door. 

The room in which Miss Mollie was lying was very 
dark. At that time she could bear scarcely any light in the 
room, as the light pained her, notwithstanding she was 
blind. There was no fire in the room and it was cold and 
chilly. She at once remarked that I wore an imperial, 
which my brother did not. On account of the darkness 
I could not distinguish Miss Fancher's features at the 
time. She took hold of my hand and passed into a trance 
state, and when she came out of it she was covered with 
cold perspiration. On another occasion she made a little 
button-hole bouquet of wax flowers, selecting the colors 
from a box of wax sheets which I handed her. It was so 
dark in her room that I could not find the box at first, 
but she pointed it out to me. 

Upon another occasion I asked her the definition of a 
certain word. She handed me a little dictionary. It was 
after sunset, and the print was very small. My eyes are 
poor, and to discern the print I would require a magnify- 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1^7 

ing glass, but she took the book, turned over a few leaves 
and pointed to the word and the definition. I afterwards 
took the book and examined the word with a glass under 
the gas light, and saw that she had directed me properly. 

At another time I found her when she did not appear 
to be the same personality, so far as actions and conver- 
sation are concerned, as upon other occasions. She called 
herself, however, Mollie Fancher, and was quite anxious 
that I should take as much interest in her as I did in the 
"other Mollie," to use her expression. 

Upon another time I sent a man to her house to hang 
her picture in the front room, but did not inform him who 
occupied the house. I gave him instructions where to 
hang it if no one should be in the room. It so happened 
that no one was in the front room, and as he reported to 
me, the folding doors between the front and back room 
were closed. In the midst of his work he heard some- 
body severely criticising him as to the manner in which 
he was hanging the picture. He looked around, saw no- 
body, and proceeded with his work, when he was again 
interrupted. He became alarmed, looked under the piano 
and back of the chairs, saw nobody in the room, went 
back to his work, when he was further criticised. He 
hastily finished his work and left the house. He told me 
that he would not go back to that house for any money, 
for he did not want to come in contact with the devil. I 
then informed him that this devil was Miss Fancher, and 
that many wealthy people would gladly pay a large sum 
to have had the experience which he had. The explana- 
tion to the whole thing being, that Miss Fancher from her 
bed in the back room, saw what he was doing, and had 
something to say as to the manner in which the work was 
done; but to see him she had to see through the partition 
intervening. I have had numerous other experiences with 
Miss Fancher, but I have mentioned sufficient to indicate 
what I know concerning her. LOUIS SHERK. 



38 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Testimony of the Press. 

The history of the case of Miss Fancher will never be 
comparatively complete unless authenticated by contem- 
poraneous reliable newspaper publications. 

On the 7th of June, 1866, the Brooklyn Eagle published 
the first article which ever reached the public concerning 
her. My attention was first called to her by her physician, 
Doctor S. Fleet Speir ; and by searching the files of the 
Brooklyn Eagle, in the Brooklyn Library, this article 
has been found ; and having ascertained that it is in the 
main, quite correct, it is here inserted. It will be found 
very interesting reading, as showing Miss Fancher's con- 
dition at that time, and of the beginning of public interest 
in her case. The facts were obtained chiefly from her own 
physician. The article is from the pen of Col. William 
Hempstreet, an able writer, and the author of a recent 
publication, entitled, " The Substance of the Soul." 



A REMARKABLE CASE. 



Terrible Condition of a Patient — The Nerves in 

Rebellion — A Continuous Trance — Persistent 

Muscular Rigidity — The Gift of Second 

Sight — Physic Baffled — The Sufferer 

Lives Seven Weeks without Food. 

It has been held by many medical men, that the re- 
markable vigor which characterizes the present century, 



THE LIFE OF MOLLTE FAnCHER. i K ]<) 

is a result of the preponderance of nervous energy in the 
races that people the earth. This would seem to hold 
good from the slowest to the most active race. Where 
nervous energy is clogged and embedded in flesh and bone 
it is less conspicuous in results ; an African of Africa, can 
hardly be said to possess the talent for fretting himself to 
death ; an anxious mother of the Saxon-Yankee race, can 
do it upon the slightest provocation. Where the driv- 
ing, go-aheadativeness of Yankee energy and thrift is 
found, there is found an atomic element known as nerves. 
Upon these all high pressure people build and work, and 
in this country they are "run" at various rapidity, until 
"Nervines," "Soothing Syrup," "Laudanum Troches," 
etc., become indispensable to about half the population. 

It has longed seemed the especial province of Ameri- 
cans to abuse their nerves from the cradle to the grave. 
The first trouble to be encountered is the paregoric epoch, 
from which a child just escapes in time to begin the im- 
bibition of tea and coffee. These are finally re-inforced 
by cigars or tobacco, and finally malt and fermented 
liquors are brought into requisition. These, not to men- 
tion other equally inimical agents, are sure to weaken the 
wonderous net work of sensation, and thus impaired, the 
nervous system is transmitted from father to child. 
Over-worked and over-stimulated, the nerves are full of 
short-lived vigor, just the thing for a short raid as flying 
artillery, but utterly failing when the heavy work of bom- 
bardment is demanded. As an illustration of the condi- 
tion of the nervous prostration to which a young person, 
previously healthy, may be brought, the following 

Very Extraordinary Case 

finds place in these columns. It will be read with melan- 
cholly interest by all, and should be well heeded by those 
to whom are confided the education of our youth of both 



146 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

sexes, as well as parents, who allow the intellectual facul- 
ties in their children to be stimulated to an unhealthy 
action, and thus render them liable to all the suffering 
now experienced by a young lady, whose case is here par- 
tially described. 

In the Twelfth Ward in this city, not very far from what 
may be termed the Clinton avenue section of town, there 
resides a family, consisting of a father, mother and 
several children, among them a daughter of nineteen 
years. The parents are moderately circumstanced, re- 
spectable and intelligent, and well connected. This 
daughter, whose name must remain unmentioned here, in 
deference to the manifest wishes of her relatives, is a fine 
looking, capable young lady, and of good apparent prom- 
ises. She is what would be termed spirituelle, with light 
hair and complexion, a fragile -figure, pale countenance, 
large sparkling eye, with a forehead and features indicative 
of thought rather than execution. Up to the time that 
her nervous system gave way she was deemed a bright 
student, and stood deservedly high in one of the Montague 
street schools. Her books were her delight ; like many 
another she neglected all for them, and would arise late in 
the morning in consequence of weakness, hasten away to 
school without a breakfast, fearful of being tardy, and 
then at evening, in her anxiety to learn her lessons, 
again neglect a meal for which she felt little inclination. 
In this manner 

Her Vitality Gradually Ebbed 

until she seemed too frail to carry the assortment of text 
books, with which city pupils load themselves in going to 
and from school. In this way, neglecting her physical 
weakness, and allowed by her parents to do so, she con- 
tinued an assiduous student until about three months 
since, when she met with an accident. In riding upon a 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 141 

horse which was rather spirited, she was thrown with con- 
siderable violence to the ground, and the shock rendered 
it necessary that she should undergo medical treatment. 
After a time she recovered slowly, and impelled by a mis- 
taken enthusiasm growing out of the spirit of class emu- 
lation, she recommenced her studies, looking more like 
parchment than flesh and blood. 

Disaster followed disaster in her case. One day in 
leaving a car in Fulton avenue her crinoline caught, and 
the weakened young lady was dragged some thirty or 
forty feet before she could be relieved from her dangerous 
position. Occurring just at this critical time was most 
unfortunate, and almost immediately she was reduced to 
her present deplorable condition. She is engaged to be 
married to a wealthy young man, and the ceremony was 
to have been solemnized this fall; this fact in connection 
with her gradual decline had its effect upon her mind, as 
she felt that she could not conscientiously assume the 
duties of a wife. A day or two after the second accident 
she was 

Suddenly Seized with Spasms, 

of which she has daily been a victim to the present time. 
For the last nine weeks she has alternated from a spasm 
to a trance, and extreme rigidity of the muscles has suc- 
ceeded their complete relaxation. At first the spasms 
were not general, but after a day or two the entire body 
appeared affected. While in these spasms the contortions 
of the unhappy patient become vital; it appears at times 
almost impossible to hold her. Each one is succeeded by 
a trance of about three hours duration. When some half 
a dozen of these attacks had passed off, it was discovered 
that the sight, hearing and power of deglutition had de- 
parted. This latter deprivation — or ability to swallow — 
was most serious, as it prevented the administering of 



142 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

medicine or food in the ordinary manner. Although the 
two avenues of sense — seeing and hearing, were cut off, 
it was discovered that the interesting patient could see 
and hear by second sight, or clairvoyant appreciation. A 
dim realization of sights and sounds, is borne to the brain 
along the weakened nerves, by which she is enabled to 
appreciate the unwearied kindness of her friends. She is, 
whenever able to communicate, in a perfectly conscious 
state, and all the mental operations appear to progress 
as usual. 

Occasionally the muscles controlling the throat relax, 
when for a time she is able to articulate indifferently 
through her clenched teeth. For the most part she is 
compelled to communicate by writing, an operation ren- 
dered additionally difficult by the fact of the tentanic 
action of the muscles of the hands, which are closed 
forcibly and in which a pen can be held only by forcing 
it between the closed fore-finger and the rigid thumb. In 
this way she writes beautifully, and in a letter to her phy- 
sician — than whom no member of the profession in this city 
stands higher — she explains in beautiful, regular chirog- 
raphy, her exact condition. One time the right hand was 
paralyzed, and she" then wrote with her left. This para- 
lysis appears never to leave the body, it appears succes- 
sively in the arms and lower limbs. 

Her Clairvoyant Condition. 

When in the quiet condition of rigidity, the patient is 
in a trance. Her eyes closed, the ears are dead to sound, 
the muscles cease to act, respiration is hardly perceptible, 
and once or twice a state of ecstacy indicative of mental 
unsteadiness has resulted. These seasons last for four 
days, or two hours each. When in this condition, she is 
powerfully clairvoyant in her faculties. She can tell the 
time by several watches variously set to deceive her, read 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 143 

unopened letters, decipher the contents of a slate, and 
repeat what "Mrs. Grundy says," by serving up the gos- 
sip of the neighborhood. She appears to possess the 
faculty of second sight to a remarkable degree. In this 
condition she lays herself out straight, folds her arms, if 
able, and stares in a look of unmeaningness with calm, 
fixed eye at the ceiling. Thus, in all the appearance of 
death, she remains until she is mysteriously relieved to be 
plunged into the 

Spasmodic State, 

which includes trismus and tetanus as well. The spasms 
cause paroxysms of the muscles of voluntary motion, and 
produce an incurvation of the spine to an alarming de- 
gree; in one case she rolled up like a hoop, her head and 
feet touching. She then became curved the other way 
for some hours. In the spasms as in the trances, the ac- 
tion of the organ of excretion is natural and normal, 
while the respiration differs materially; in the latter con- 
dition the patient is quiet, motionless, rigid and breathes 
almost imperceptibly, while in the former she is continu- 
ally in motion, her contortions absolutely fearful to wit- 
ness and almost entirely beyond control. And yet, amid 
all this idiosyncratic action, her mind is as clear as ever, 
enabling her to smile at a good joke and compliment the 
maker thereof. 

Of course the unfortunate has been treated for her 
malady, without any particular encouragement; the treat- 
ment is as peculiar as the disease. The practice of medi- 
cine, in all cases experimental to a degree, is entirely so 
in this one. During last week the patient fell into a deep 
trance while sitting in a chair, her head fell back, the 
limbs straightened out, the hands were clenched in a grip 
which no power could break, and a cold condition of the 
body prevailed. Thus she remained' — a living corpse — 



H4 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

the incarnation of vitalized death — until Saturday morn- 
ing last, when the muscular rigidity ceased, except in her 
right arm and lower limbs. During all this time she could 
neither hear, see, feel, taste nor smell, all the avenues of 
life and communication were cut off. To test this, the 
flesh was perforated with pins, knives were used and the 
most powerful blisters applied to the cuticle, but without 
the least visible effect. The nerves were thoroughly 
paralyzed, no sensation could be communicated through 
them, and the prostrated girl, living in the rigidity of 
death, remains unconscious of the usual painful opera- 
tions performed upon her. The strongest mustard plaster 
will have no more effect upon the appearance of her skin 
even, than would an application of water. Every function 
appears as if held in abeyance, every avenue of communi- 
cation obstructed. 

What was Tried. 

At first a homoeopathic physician was engaged for the 
sufferer; but little pills and teaspoonfuls of A and B were 
useless, as deglutition was important in consequence of 
the almost hermetical closing of the throat. Homoeopathy 
was then succeeded by hydropathy and the un-nerved 
young girl was showered with cold water to produce a 
shock and thus restore the action of her nerves. Her 
spine was frozen by ice, and finally by this "treatment," 
long since abandoned even in insane asylums, she was 
very nearly washed into her grave. Her abnormal con- 
dition became aggravated instead of yielding, and a 
change of physicians was effected. An allopathy repre- 
sentative came next and found his patient in a trance. 
He began by administering food and nourishment by 
enemas, and on Saturday, for the first time in seven weeks, 
the tracheal muscles of the patient relaxed slightly, and 
her physician, by forcing the pliable extension of a throat 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 145 

syringe past the obstructed point, was enabled to inject 
a little soup and milk punch into the stomach. Last 
Sunday she had a spasm but no trance followed. This 
is found as a good sign by the physician, who now dares 
to hope that the unfortunate young girl may ultimately 
be restored to a moderate degree of health. 

Persons who believe in Spiritualism, as expounded by 
Andrew Jackson Davis, table-tipping, Rochester rapping, 
etc., claim that this is simply a case of spirit mediumship 
in which a bevy of bad spirits capture a human body viet 
armis, and hold it as the Board of Health proposes to hold 
the westerly point of Coney Island. The physicians hold 
that it is simply an utter prostration of nervous power, 
susceptible of cure under careful treatment. Non-pro- 
fessionals will, of course, side with those whose hypothe- 
ses appears the most rational. 



I46 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Mr. Epes Sargent's Defense of Miss Fancher and 
Correspondence. 

As might have been expected, the publication in the 
Brooklyn Eagle, aroused public curiosity, and a hunt was 
at once commenced to ascertain the whereabouts and 
name of the remarkable invalid. Her identity could not 
long be concealed. Then her home was at once invaded 
by reporters, and hundreds of other people, anxious to 
learn more of the phenomenal parts of her case, or to sat- 
isfy their curiosity and be able to say that they had seen 
Mollie Fancher. From that time to the present, at short 
intervals, the press has flamed out with statements con- 
cerning her. Some have been founded upon previously 
published accounts, with imaginative interviews added by 
the enterprising reporter. The determined efforts of 
Miss Fancher not to be constantly before the public, and 
her refusal to permit physicians, other than her own, to 
visit her bedside, tended to create adverse criticism, from 
which she was destined to suffer in any event. She 
denied the right of the public to be informed of her con- 
dition, and even forbade her physicians and intimate 
iriends to give out for publication anything concerning 
her. But even these precautions were insufficient to se- 
cure the privacy she desired. Some of the publications 
concerning her were cruel in the extreme. 

By some persons she was pronounced a fraud and an 
impostor, and the fact that she was living so long without 
food was denied. She was publicly accused of deception, 
and such physicians as Doctors William A. Hammond and 
Geo, M, Beard, of the City of New York, spoke and wrote 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FAXCHER. 147 

of her very disparagingly, without ever having seen 
her ! 

On November 25th, 1878, the report of an interview by 
a reporter of the New York Sun, was published in that 
paper, with Dr. William A. Hammond, in which the reporter 
informed Dr. Hammond, that Miss Fancher had the tes- 
timony of such men as Rev. Dr. Duryea, the Rev. Dr. 
Van Dyck, Prof. West, Henry Parkhurst, the astronomer, 
and such physicians as Drs. Speir and Ormiston, as to the 
genuineness of her case. 

Dr. Hammond in reply is reported to have said, " I 
know that they are all deceived — lied to by this hysteri- 
cal girl." 

" But," said the reporter, " see what tests she was sub- 
jected to. How can there be any deception ? " To which 
the doctor replied, " Well there is deception in all. It's 
all a humbug. Why, my dear fellow, she is not the first 
girl that has deceived learned and good men. There are 
plenty of cases of simulative hysteria, and Miss Fancher's 
is one. I haven't seen her, never heard of her before ; 
but I have heard of so many other similiar cases that I do 
not hesitate to speak strongly about it." 

" But," said the reporter, " how do you account for her 
second sight ; her reading a paper that she don't see ; her 
telling the contents of a sealed envelope ? " 

" She can't do it," said the doctor, vehemently. " She 
can do nothing of the kind. I'll bet $3,000 she can't do 
it before me. I will write a check for over $1,000, and if 
she will tell me the exact amount, the bank on which it 
is drawn, and describe the check generally, I'll give it to 
her. Why, I can read you case after case where these 
hysterical girls have deceived thousands. Take the 
matter of visions. This girl in Brooklyn is a Protestant 
so she confines her visions to seeing heaven and her dead 
friends, Were she a Catholic she'd see the Virgin Mary 



148 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

or the Saviour, like that girl at Lourdes, who sees the 
Virgin, and who actually has been the means of having a 
church built on the spot where the vision appears. You 
have seen accounts of the excitement she has created. 
Why, she is 

Simply a Cataleptic. 

I have myself, had under my immediate charge, fifty 
girls and women who in the condition of ecstacy, have had 
visions of all sorts, all the way from God himself dowm to 
the schoolmistress who had locked them up in dark 
closets. I tell you that those people in Brooklyn are of 
two classes — those who lie and those who are deceived. 
Mind you, I do not say that Miss Fancher is to blame, that 
she does all this intentionally. Hysteria prompts decep- 
tion. It is a characteristic of the disease. She has 
probably not will enough to overcome the desire to de- 
ceive. But she should be aided in every way to overcome 
the desire, not assisted in her deceptions. For all this is 
simply the deception of a hysterical girl." 

"But she has deceived clergymen and physicians." 
"Oh, that's nothing. Clergymen are the most gullible 
men in the world, and physicians who have not made a 
study of nervous diseases are apt to be imposed upon by 
these girls." 



In an article published in the New York Sun, Decem- 
ber 23d, 1878, is an extract from a tract entitled " The 
Scientific Lessons of the Mollie Fancher Case," by Geo. 
M. Beard, M. D., New York, in which he says : " Un- 
sought-for evidence has been brought to me from various 
quarters — from physicians and from clergymen as honor- 
able and able as any whose names have appeared in con- 
nection with this case — that Mollie Fancher intentionally 



iliK I. UK of MOLLlE FANCHER. I49 

deceives ; that she lives on the fat of the land ; that the 
fancy articles she professes to make are made for her ; 
that her reading without eyes is done by trickery ; but all 
this, like the evidence on the opposite side, is of a non- 
expert character, and can, in science, receive no consid- 
eration." 

To these attacks, numerous answers were made 
through the press, and among others who took up the 
cause on behalf of Miss Fancher, was Mr. Epes Sargent, 
a man of great literary attainments, a careful student of 
psychology, a well-known writer. He wrote an exceed- 
ingly able article which was published in the Sun of 
December, 1878, in answer to these unworthy criticisms 
and assaults upon Miss Fancher. The publication of his 
letter called forth from Miss Fancher a note to him, ex- 
pressing her thanks for his kindness in defending her. 
The following is Mr. Sargent's reply to the assaults upon 
Miss Fancher, and also a personal letter to her, in reply 
to a letter of thanks to him. 



150 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Mr. Epes Sargent to the New York Sun. 

To the Editor of the Sun : 

Sir. — In a tract entitled " The Scientific Lessons of 
the Mollie Fancher Case," by George M. Beard, M. D., 
New York, the writer says: "Unsought for evidence 
has been brought to me from various quarters— from 
physicians and from clergymen as honorable and as able 
as any whose names have appeared in connection with 
this case, that Mollie Fancher intentionally deceives ; 
that she lives on the fat of the land ; that the fancy arti- 
cles she professes to make are made for her ; that her 
reading without eyes is done by trickery ; but all this, 
like the evidence on the opposite side, is of a non-expert 
character, and can, in science, receive no consideration." 

So it would require an expert, would it, to decide 
whether Miss Fancher "lives on the fat of the land ; " an 
expert like Dr. Beard ? No butcher, cook maitre d'hotel, 
or lovers of good eating would be competent to decide the 
question ! 

I have no acquaintance whatever with Miss Fancher or 
any of the persons who have testified in her case, so I will 
leave it to her friends to answer (if they have not already 
done so), what seems to me a very gross and uncalled-for 
attack on a lady prostrated by disease. It is very much 
as if one were to publish a paragraph like this : " Unsought 
for evidence has been brought me from various quarters, 
by most honorable and trustworthy persons, that Dr. 
Blank is a forger, a thief and a murderer ; but as the tes- 
timony is of an entirely non-expert character it can, in 
science, receive no consideration." 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 151 

Could Mrs. Candor herself have done it better than Dr. 
Beard in this attempt to slay a reputation ? Sheridan's lady 
limited her scandalous remarks to the drawing room ; the 
doctor sends his broadcast over the land 'n a published tracts 

It is not surprising that Dr. Beard should be very 
much disturbed by the strong and respectable testimony, 
recently published in The Sun, in regard to certain re- 
markable phenomena similar to those which he has been 
denouncing lustily for several years as impostures or de- 
lusions. He is committed to a theory which would dismiss 
all supersensual facts as impossibilities. Having claimed 
that only an "expert" is qualified to observe a fact in 
clairvoyance, to comprehend whether Miss Fancher, or 
any one else, really ever did read through the folds of a 
sealed letter, or utter certain words, indicating prevision, 
or execute a piece of fancy work in the dark ; and having 
further claimed that in the whole world at this time there 
are only seven or eight experts of the kind needed, he 
gives us very clearly to infer that Dr. Beard is one of 
those seven or eight highly gifted persons, nay, the very 
Corypheus of the band. 

But when we come to inquire into his claims to be recog- 
nized as an expert, we find that they are mainly of a 
negative kind ; based, not on his acquaintance with 
inductive facts, but on his estimate of his own remarkable 
cleverness at "deductive reasoning." Great as a physi- 
cian, it seems he is greater as a metaphysician ; and it is 
in this latter capacity that he appears in assuming to 
decide what things are subjects for scientific inquiry, and 
what are not, and whether or not Miss Fancher is an 
impostor. 

Why is clairvoyance untrue, according to Dr. Beard ? 
And he gives us to understand that it is untrue, because 
"absolutely disproved by deductive reasoning," and be- 
cause the " special sciences," to which its claims must be 



1^2 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

referred, know them " to be false, without any examina- 
tion ! " 

So it appears that his " expertness " is derived mainly 
from not knowing certain facts which certain weak-minded 
persons, like Sir Wm. Hamilton, Dr. Wm. Gregory, Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh ; the 
nine members of the five-year Special Commission on 
Mesmerism of the French Royal Academy of Medicine, 
together with Archbishop Whately, Dr. Elliotson, Dr. 
Ashburner, Dr. Esdale and others, after long and patient 
investigation, have claimed to know. 

If this be not a somewhat arbitrary extension into the 
domain of positive science, of the etymological process by 
which lucus was said to be derived a non lucendo, what is 
it? Truly, it saves a deal of trouble, but how is it made 
available in the education of an expert ? There I confess 
myself nonplussed. 

Deductive reasoning may err, as well as intuitive judg- 
ment. It was deductive reasoning that led Bacon, Me- 
lanchthon, Luther and other learned men to reject the Co- 
pernican system. Deductive reasoning opposed the intro- 
duction of gas, the system of cheap postage and ocean 
steamship navigation. It refused to look through Galileo's 
telescope. It was very incredulous also as to the possi- 
bility of Edison's talking machine, and it has stood in the 
way of many great inventions and wise reforms. 

Dr. Beard divides the universe into the known, the 
unkown and the supernatural; and he tells us that "in 
the realm of the supernatural all things are possible and 
all things are undemonstrable." 

Now, would it not be a little less unscientific to say 
that we really do not know whether there is anything 
supernatural ; that what seems to us such may be merely 
the natural unrecognized or misunderstood ? What pos- 
sible reason has a man claiming to be a man of science, 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCMER. 15J 

for saying that "in the realm of the supernatural all 
things are possible," when he does not even know of the 
existence of the supernatural ? 

Ruling out the supernatural as merely the imaginary, 
what right, then, has Dr. Beard to say that certain well- 
attested facts are legitimate subjects of scientific inquiry, 
and others are not ? How, except under his arbitrary 
metaphysical assumptions is he going to make even a 
show of a defence ? He would subject the proof of a 
fact to the same a priori limitations as the proof of a 
hypothetical proposition. The rotundity of the earth would 
not have been proved to this day if men of science had 
been "experts" of the type of Dr. Beard, and maintained 
that facts cannot be demonstrated as well as propositions, 
or that they can be annihilated by his deductive reason- 
ing. 

The trouble with him is, that he confounds deductive 
evidence with intuitive, and vice versa. Now, it is de- 
monstrative evidence only that is in the true sense scien- 
tific ; and how, out of his purely negative notions, is he 
going to give us any demonstrable proof of his negations? 
In his claim to judge of scientific possibilities by his 
" deductive reasoning," he is simply an idealist or an in- 
tuitionalist ; and in his presumption that he can truly 
test the delicate psychical phenomena in Miss Fancher's 
case by his rude, material, dictatorial process, irrespective 
of the subtle influence which his very presence, in his 
aggressive, positive, unsympathetic state of mind, would 
introduce, he is a coarse realist and no more qualified as 
an " expert " to discover the real facts of such a case than 
a blacksmith or a pavior. 

To show how far Dr. Beard is merely a despotic 
idealist in attempting to invalidate by his "deductive 
reasoning," certain perfectly well established facts, let 
me call the reader's attention to the following : 



i 54 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

In the year 1826 the Royal Academy of Medicine in 
Paris appointed a commission of eleven members, who in- 
quired into the whole subject of mesmerism for five years, 
and, in 1831, reported in full, and in favor of the reality 
of almost all the alleged phenomena, including clairvoy- 
ance. Of the eleven members, nine attended the meeting 
and experiments, and all nine signed the report, which 
was therefore unanimous. They say : "We have seen two 
somnambulists distinguish, with their eyes shut, objects 
placed before them ; name cards, read books, writing, &c. 
This phenomenon took place even when the opening 
of the eyelids was accurately closed by means of the 
fingers." 

Here was a body of nine trained and skeptical physi- 
cians, undoubted experts (though, perhaps, not after Dr. 
Beard's definition), who examined the subject experiment- 
ally for five years, and then unanimously reported that 
clairvoyance is a fact. Does Dr. Beard flatter himself 
that he can annihilate such testimony by his " deductive 
reasoning?" Or that his claim to be an expert on this 
one subject can be admitted by those who have studied it 
practically not only for five, but for forty-five years ? 

Dr. Georget, of Paris, in his day an expert in nervous 
and cerebral pathology, was the author (182 1) of a much 
esteemed work on the "Physiology of the Nervous 
System," in which he boldly professed materialism. But 
in his last will and testament he writes : " Hardly had my 
'Physiology' appeared, when renewed meditations on a 
very extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer 
permitted me to entertain doubts of the existence within 
us, and external to us, of an intelligent principle, alto- 
gether different from material existences ; in a word, of the 
soul and God. With respect to this I have a profound 
conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be in- 
contestable. This declaration will not see the light till 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E LYNCHER. 1$$ 

a period when its sincerity will not be doubted, nor my 
intentions suspected." It was not published till after his 
death. 

And this expert in nervous disease, Dr. Georget, was 
converted from materialism by facts quite similar to those 
attested by Dr. Duryea and others in Miss Fancher's case. 
But Georget was not the only eminent expert converted 
from materialism. Dr. Beard has of course heard of 
Cabanis, author of "Rapports du Physique et du Moral 
de 1 'homme." His writings have been a vast storehouse 
of facts for materialists. Yet in a posthumous letter, 
published by Dr. Beard, Cabanis emphatically abandons 
his materialistic conclusions, and formally recognizes the 
necessity of an immaterial or spiritual principle. Few of 
the writers, who are now using the arguments of Cabanis 
against the existence of psychical power in man, ever men- 
tion the interesting fact that he lived to retract his error. 
A clairvoyant boy at Plymouth, England, whose case 
will be found reported in the " Zoist " (vol. IV, pp. 84-88), 
was subjected to the examination of a skeptical committee 
whose names are given, and who seem to have done their 
work very thoroughly. First his eyes were examined, and 
it was found that the balls were so turned up that, even 
were the eyelids a little apart, ordinary vision was impos- 
sible. Then he was closely watched, and while the eyelids 
were seen to be perfectly closed he read easily. Then 
adhesive plaster was applied, carefully warmed, in three 
layers, and it was watched to see that the adhesion was 
perfect all round the edges. Again the boy read what 
was presented to him — sometimes easily, sometimes with 
difficulty. At the end of the experiments the plaster was 
taken off strip by strip by the committee, and it was 
found to be perfectly secure and the eyelids so completely 
glued together that it was a work of some difficulty to 
get them open again. 



t$b THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

Is a case like this one in which "deductive reasoning" 
must be permitted to make us insensible to the force of 
facts, perfectly well attested, continually repeated, and 
more common now than they have been for the last fifty 
years ? If facts are to be thus left to the mercy of an 
individual's deductive reasoning, why not dispense with a 
jury in our courts of law, and employ some expert of a 
judge to render verdicts ? 

Dr. Schmitz, Rector of the High School at Edinburgh, 
whose school books, published by the Messrs. Harper, are 
used in many American schools, had a clairvoyant at his 
house, who accurately described Prof. Gregory's house, 
and the persons at that time in the dining-room (afterward 
ascertained to be correct.) As a further test, Dr. 
Schmitz was asked to go into another room with his son 
and do anything he liked. The boy then described their 
motions, by jumping about, the son going out and coming 
in again, and the doctor beating his son with a roll of 
paper. When Dr. Schmitz returned, Prof. Gregory re- 
peated all the boy had said, which the doctor, much 
astonished, declared to be correct in every particular. 

A party of experts, of whom Sergeant Cox, a well- 
known lawyer of London, and President of the Psycho- 
logical Society, was one, was planned to test Alexis, the 
famous French clairvoyant. A word was written by a 
friend in a distant town and enclosed in an envelope 
without any of the party knowing what the word was. 
This envelope was enclosed in six others of thick brown 
paper, each sealed. The packet was handed to Alexis, 
who placed it on his forehead, and in three minutes and a 
half wrote the contents correctly, imitating the very hand- 
writing. (See "What am I?" by Sergeant Cox; vol. 2, 
page 167. It may be found in the Boston Public Library.) 

Robert Houdin, of Paris, the greatest of modern 
conjurers, whose exploits were well known, took his own 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 157 

cards and dealt them himself, but Alexis named them as 
they lay upon the table and even named the trump before 
it was turned up. This was repeated several times, and 
Houdin declared that neither chance nor skill could pro- 
duce such wonderful results. He then took a book from 
his pocket and asked Alexis to read something eight pages 
beyond where it was opened, at a specified level. Alexis 
pricked the place with a pin, and read four words, which 
were found at the place pricked, nine pages on. He then 
told Houdin numerous details as to his son, in some of 
which Houdin tried to deceive him, but in vain ; and 
when it was over, Houdin declared that the facts reported 
were correct, adding: "The more I reflect upon them the 
more impossible do I find it to class them among the 
tricks which are the objects of my art." His two letters 
were published at the time in La Siecle, May, 1847. 

Will Dr. Beard contend that Houdin, the most expert 
of conjurers, and whose business it was to find out every 
trick that he could utilize to strike one with astonishment, 
was not, after all, so much of an expert as himself ; that 
he did not know how to investigate by " deductive 
reasoning," and that what he thought he saw did not 
happen? If the doctor can find any persons simple 
enough to believe such a claim, he is quite welcome to 
such converts. 

Capt. R. F. Burton, the famous English traveler and 
explorer, in a letter to the London Times (Nov., 1876), 
writes: "The experience of twenty years has convinced 
me that perception is possible without the ordinary 
channels of the senses ;" and he remarks on the subject 
of clairvoyance, that it is to be "proved or disproved, 
not by hard words, nor by mere logic, but by experiment 
and facts." 

A very different opinion, it would seem, from that of 
Dr, Beard, who wishes us to take it for granted that his 



158 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

" deductive reasoning " must settle the matter, and if 
facts contradict that, why then so much the worse for the 
facts ! 

Dr. F. Lefebre, Professor of Pathology in the University 
of Louvain, a very learned physician, would not have 
discredited Dr. Speir's testimony even to an instance of 
prevision on the part of Miss Fancher, for he writes: "It 
is possible that the power of foresight by somnambulists 
may be raised to a degree far above the ordinary level, 
and that they can sometimes penetrate into the future so 
far as to excite our utmost astonishment." 

Unnumbered incidents, similar to those I have related, 
might be quoted. I have witnessed many myself during 
the last forty years, and I have seen what the cleverest 
conjurers can do in imitation of clairvoyance and mind- 
reading ; but I will take the word ot the best of them 
that the process by which the genuine clairvoyant gets his 
knowledge is incommunicable. Mr. Bidder, the highly 
esteemed English arithmetician, who excited wonder when 
a boy by his instantaneous answers to complex questions 
in arithmetic, on being asked, how he did it, replied, "I 
don't do it — I see it." And the clairvoyant can give no 
better explanation than this. 

The only true experts in such a phenomenon as clair- 
voyance are those who have studied it experimentally for 
a long series of years, co-ordinated the facts, ruled out 
all that was doubtful, and by repeated tests satisfied 
themselves, under a great variety of conditions, and 
through many clairvoyant subjects, young aud old, the 
sound in body and the unsound, the ignorant and the 
educated, that the existence of such a faculty is proved 
beyond a question. The very element of positive, 
aggressive distrust, which Dr. Beard would bring to the 
investigation of so subtle a phenomenon, would be fatal 
to any satisfactory result. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 159 

A name or a fact which we try to force ourselves to 
remember may evade our most anxious endeavor. But if 
we give it up, and think of something else, it may soon 
start up, automatically, as it were, and summon conscious- 
ness to seize it. Every experienced investigator knows 
that the most wonderful proofs of clairvoyance are those 
that are unexpected and spontaneous. Try to extort 
them by your imperious manner, or manifest distrust, (and 
you cannot well feel it without manifesting it to clairvoy- 
ant sympathies) and you spoil the conditions, and per- 
haps go away ignorantly pronouncing it all a delusion. 

" Fear of .experts," says Dr. Beard, referring to Miss 
Fancher's case, " is one of the symptoms, almost pathog- 
nomic." Not a fear of genuine experts, but a sense of 
the folly of dallying with those persons who are strongly 
committed against the fact, and who bring the predeter- 
mination not to be convinced,' is the real motive that 
makes the sensitive subject shy of such experimenters. 

Dr. Beard tells us that " human testimony is the pro- 
duct of the human brain." It was but just now that Dr. 
Hammond, who also denounces the Fancher narrative as 
"all humbug," and who asserts that " there never was a 
case of clairvoyance," told us that " the spinal cord and 
sympathetic ganglia are not devoid of mental power." 
How, then, do we know that human testimony does not 
come from the ganglia ? Once it used to be thought that 
mental manifestations came from what the simple still 
call the mind; and that the brain was merely an instru- 
ment for thought, even as the eyes are for seeing, and the 
ears for hearing. But " nous avons change tout cela." 
Thought is now merely a product of the movement of 
certain kaleidoscopic molecules in the brain; and if I 
think differently from Dr. Beard he must not blame me, 
since it is merely because the molecules in my brain get 
disposed, or shaken up, differently from those of his own, 



l6o THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Thus thought lacks the character of logical necessity, 
and universal truths are impossible, all except those that 
come from his own individual " deductive reasoning." 
Here are his words : "Human testimony is the product 
of the human brain, and its scientific study belongs to 
those who, like physicians, devote themselves to the study 
of the brain in health and disease." 

So, then, it now appears that all these books that have 
been written on mental philosophy, the human under- 
standing, logic, and the laws of evidence by the Aristotles, 
Lockes, Berkeleys, Humes, Kants, Hegels, Hamiltons, 
Mills, Von Hartmanns, Blackstones, Kents and Storys 
must be displaced as rubbish to make room for the writings 
of Drs. Beard and Hammond ! 

And if Dr. Beard is an expert in judging of human 
testimony, why not in judging of other "products of the 
human brain," and for the same reason ? Why can he 
not lay down for us laws of taste in poetry, painting, 
music, and general literature? Are they not all, equally 
with human testimony, products of the human brain, and 
does not their "scientific study " belong to one who de- 
votes himself " to the study of the human brain in health 
and disease ?" 

Dr. Beard says: "We have not in our profession a 
more honorable or able body of men than some of the 
Brooklyn physicians who have been, directly or indirectly, 
connected with the case of Miss Fancher; and yet the in- 
stincts of the majority, both of general practitioners and 
specialists of nervous diseases, reject all of their testi- 
mony relating to the claims of clairvoyance, mind read- 
ing, and prophecy." 

This time it is instincts that must be admitted to the 
witness stand under Dr. Beard's ruling. When ii comes 
to quoting the " instincts " of certain physicians as any 
authority in a question of clairvoyance, is it not in order 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. l6l 

for Dr. Beard to explain how it is that the instincts, 
coupled with the long and multiplied observations of men 
like the Rev. Dr. Duryea, Prof. Chas. E. West, Henry M. 
Parkhurst, and Dr. Speir, all in Miss Fancher's favor, 
should not be as authoritative as the instincts of profes- 
sional persons experimentally unacquainted with the facts, 
probably not knowing Miss Fancher, and who now, on 
purely a priori grounds, mere instincts, would impugn her 
honesty? "Instincts and deductive reasoning ! " Does 
Dr. Beard really suppose that men seriously in search of 
facts, are to be staggered by arguments like these ? 

But Dr. Beard is not without a precedent. There is 
another eminent authority, one who in a certain depart- 
ment was himself an expert, who thought as highly as he 
of instinct, and said : " Beware instinct ! The lion will 
not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter. I 
was a coward on instinct. I shall think better of myself 
and thee, during my life ; I for a valiant lion, and thou 
for a true prince." 

" Studying the subject through the reason," says Dr. 
Beard, " we know deductively by the law of biology 
that no member of the human species can have any 
quality different in kind from those that belong to the 
race." 

If anything were needed to show the shallowness of 
Dr. Beard's pretensions to be an expert in regard to clair- 
voyance and cognate phenomena, this one sentence would 
suffice. What real expert denies that clairvoyance is a 
faculty probably latent in all human beings, but developed 
only under certain conditions, abnormal or infrequent ? 
Because an adult man may not be able to tell one tune in 
music from another, and little Mozart at rive years of age 
shows marvelous powers both in executing and composing 
music, do we infer that Mozart had a a quality different 
in kind from those that belong to the race ? " 



162 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Dr. Beard takes certain facts gleaned from his experi- 
ence as a medical advisor in nervous diseases, and rejects, 
simply because they do not harmonize with his foregone 
theory, a large class of other facts gleaned by competent 
persons giving special attention to the mental phenomena 
manifested. How, then, can we place any reliance upon 
the deductions made by him from laws or rules derived 
not from all the facts, but from only a few, and those, 
perhaps, purely physical in their nature ? In what possi- 
ble way has he qualified himself to pronounce against 
facts which he has not witnessed, but which are amply 
attested by other persons, including physicians ? 

" Why, by my deductive reason ! " he will reply, while 
the truth is that there is no reason in his deduction, since 
he has accepted but a portion of the facts and arbitrarily 
excluded others which he claims to know, " without exami- 
nation," are false. It follows, then, that what he calls his 
deductive reasoning has no more scientific value than the, 
"instincts" which he felicitates himself on, as having led 
some of his professional brethren to charge Miss Fancher 
with fraud. 

Unless the Fancher case is overturned by something 
very different from the impotent and unscientific antagon- 
ism of Dr. Beard, its well attested facts must be a valuable 
contribution to that enlarged science of psychology, the 
materials for which have been fast accumulating during 
the last hundred years, and never more rapidly than dur- 
ing the last ten. 

EPES SARGENT 

Boston, December 17, 1878. 

P. S. — I have just learnt that Dr. Hammond proposed 
to test Miss Fancher by placing in an envelope a check 
for a sum of money over $1,000, and having her tell, in the 
presence of three scientific examiners, two of them being 



THE LIFE OK MOLLIE FANCHER. 163 

competent neurologists, the amount, number, date, on 
whom drawn, signature, etc., she to have the money in the 
event of her success. 

Ever since Puysegur's experiments in 1784, offers like 
this have been repeatedly made, as Dr. Hammond must 
be aware, and declined generally in cases where some ex- 
perienced person had charge of the sensitive subject. 
And why declined ? Because you might as well expect 
the needle to point true while you are agitating the com- 
pass as expect to elicit clairvoyance under the stress and 
excitement of an anxious motive, or under the disturbance 
produced by the simple presence of an uncongenial person, 
aggressively disposed. 

Suppose some "expert" should go to Dr. Hammond 
and say, " Here is a certified check for ten thousand dol- 
lars, and now you shall have it if you will mention right 
off, within thirty seconds, the names of six classmates 
with whom you went to school when a boy." Would not 
the doctor (if he were in need of the $10,000, which I hope 
he is not), be likely to feel some little tremor and doubt, 
which would paralyze the effort of memory ? And yet, in 
familiar conversation, where nothing was exacted and 
nothing at stake, and he was not limited as to time, how 
readily might he mention the six names in the thirty 
seconds ! 

Clairvoyance is a phenomenon as delicate and uncer- 
tain as that manifested in the caprices — the sudden flashes 
and sudden eclipses— of memory. A subject's lucidity is 
always impaired or spoiled by anything that excites 
anxiety or irritation, or appeals to cupidity. Nay, the 
very presence of a person convinced that there is impos- 
ture and eagerly bent on detecting it, would, without any 
external manifestation, be felt by a sensitive as readily 
as she might feel, in her normal state, a freezing current 
of air. 



164 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Every patient investigator knows all this ; and it was 
the reason why such physicians as Dr. Gregory and Dr. 
Haddock, having the command of clairvoyants, always 
refused to subject them to the money test. Such negative 
proofs of indisposition to act, under conditions that would 
introduce all these adverse influences, do not reach the 
real truth, for, as Mr. A. R. Wallace remarks : " How can 
any number of individual failures affect the question of 
the comparatively rare successes ? As well deny that any 
rifleman can hit the bull's eye at one thousand yards 
because none can be sure of hitting it always and at a 
moment's notice." 

Of course, by the skeptical and ignorant, the answer to 
these reasons will be an incredulous shrug. The reasons 
are good and true, nevertheless, and all eminent students 
of the subject of somnambulism, whether spontaneous or 
induced by mesmerism, have come to this conclusion. 

" I think we may now regard it as established," says 
Dr. Gregory, " that (in clairvoyance) the subject often 
possesses a new power of perception, the nature of which 
is unknown, but by means of which he can see objects o r 
persons, near or distant, without the use of external organs 
of vision ; " and my o'wn prolonged experience amply 
confirms all this. 

The over confident attacks of Drs. Hammond and 
Beard are merely repetitions of what has been going 
on the past hundred years ; and when the money test has 
been proposed and rejected, the ignorant have cried out, 
as perhaps they will cry now, " This settles the thing." 
But, no; the thing has been many times settled in that 
way, and has not stayed settled. Where there were ten 
believers in clairvoyance thirty years ago, there are ten 
thousand now. It is useless for us to point to the intermin- 
able accumulations of ever-recurring testimony in behalf 
of the great phenomenon ; for these soi-distant experts 



I UK LIFE OF MOLLIK FANCHER. 165 

take the ground that the testimony of the whole human 
race would be of no avail against their own " deductive 
reasoning." Of what use is it, then, to dispute with such 
persons, since they substantially tell us that facts of 
nature, abundantly attested and proved, must give way to 
their own individual preconceptions of what it is proper 
for nature to permit? But, as Lord Bacon well remarks : 
"The voice of nature will consent, whether that of man 
do or no " — " instincts and deductive reasoning," prepos- 
sessions and metaphysical crotches, to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 



Mr. Epes Sargent to Miss Fancher. 

Boston, Jan. 8th, 1879. 
Dear Miss Fancher: 

Your interesting letter of January 4th gave me much 
pleasure. You owe me nothing in the way of thanks, for 
to me you were an impersonality (though now — I hope a 
friend) and what I wrote was for the impersonal truth. I 
knew that your two principal assailants, Doctors Beard 
and Hammond, were as ignorant as they were audacious 
on the subject of clairvoyance. What can be said of the 
discretion or good sense of a man who could publish a 
sentence like this by Dr. Beard: "Tt is a fact, capable of 
absolute proof that no phenomena of this kind" (clair- 
voyance) "has ever appeared in the world in any human 
creature, in the trance or out of the trance." That is to 
say, it is a fact "capable of absolute proof," that Christ 
never told the woman of Samaria — "all things that ever 
she did." That Henry the Fourth of France did not say, 
as he was going out on the day of his assassination, " I 
shall meet with misfortune." That Swedenborg did not 
describe the great fire at Stockholm, and that Miss 



1 66 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Fancher never read a letter clairvoyantly. A physician 
who affirms that it is "capable of absolute proof," that 
such occurrences never took place, is quite as much of a 
blockhead as the Irishman, who, being on trial for steal- 
ing a pig, wanted to call in a dozen of his neighbors to 
testify, that they did not see him steal it. Gross insinua- 
tions from such a quarter must not disturb you. The 
psychical faculties manifested in your case are undoubt- 
edly the property of all men, though rarely developed to 
consciousness in this stage of being. Dr. Beard founds 
the objections of what he calls his " deductive reasoning" 
on a stupid misconception, this — namely, that your case 
contradicted the principle that " no human being ever has 
any faculty different in kind from that conferred on the 
human race in general." Now, there is no such contra- 
diction. What your case helps to prove is — that there 
are psychical, supersensual or spiritual faculties in the 
human being generally. That these faculties, being inde- 
pendent of the appropriate physical organs, and trans- 
scending all material limitations, must inhere in an entity, 
of which the physical body is merely the temporary 
instrument, must belong, in short, to what St. Paul calls 
" the spiritual body." And thus your experiences help to 
corroborate the pneumatology of the Hebrew and Chris- 
tian Scriptures, and to give us a rational and strictly 
scientific ground for regarding the term i?nmortality, or not 
death, as etymologically correct, and as directly appli- 
cable to the individual man, since all of him that dies is 
the external husk — whose atoms have been always in a 
state of flux and departure, and which death disintegrates, 
leaving the spiritual organism emancipate and unharmed. 
Now this view, scriptural, aboriginal, and common even 
to uncivilized tribes — a view also in strict harmony with 
absolute science — is one against which the physicists of 
our day are arrayed in deadly hostility. They have per- 



THti LIFE ()K MOLLtE FANCHKR. 167 

fected their opinions, and a phenomenon like clairvoyance 
would be a disturbing element, would compel them to go 
to school again, and to learn something from cases like 
yours. This they cannot afford to do. That anything 
substantial, though unseen, leaves the body at death — 
that there are supersensual faculties — they will not 
believe. Physicists like Tyndall and Youmans, tell us 
that the psychic realm is ultra-scientific, and does not 
belong to the realm of nature ; that theologians and 
speculative philosophers may amuse themselves in that 
fanciful region, but that grave men of science cannot 
recognize its existence. Now this is all untrue and mis- 
chievous ; untrue because directly contradicted by such 
phenomena as your case has developed ; and mischievous 
because such assumptions lead to a Sadduceean phil- 
osophy, that rejects immortality as a myth, and religion 
as a chimera fit only for children and old women. We 
hold that the phenomena of your case belong strictly to 
the realm of nature, and that the psychic faculty may be 
proved equally with the mathematical or the musical. 

And so, dear Miss Fancher, I hope it will be a joy and 
a comfort to you, to realize that your life has not been 
fruitless. That you have been highly privileged by Prov- 
idence in helping us to strike a telling blow at the wretched 
Sadduceeism of our age, towards which the physical sci- 
ences seem to be leading those who ignore such facts as 
your case exhibits, though all positive and genuine science 
is, as it advances, helping to confirm and illustrate these 
supersensual facts, and must ever be in full harmony with 
them. I fear I must have wearied you with my long let- 
ter, if so, let the motive exculpate me, and believe me, 
Very sincerely your friend, 

EPES. SARGENT. 

P. O. Box 2985. 

Miss Mollie Fancher, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



l68 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



The Testimony of Prof. Charles E. West and Henry 
M. Parkhurst. 

No gentleman in Brooklyn has more respect in the com- 
munity, than Prof. Charles E. West, principal of the 
Brooklyn Heights Seminary, with whom Miss Fancher 
studied so many years before her accident. 

This gentleman is well and hearty, though upwards of 
eighty years of age. He retains all his intellectual facul- 
ties seemingly unimpaired. He visited Miss Fancher soon 
after the features of her case began to develope in pro- 
ducing the phenomena which have attracted so much 
attention. He made careful notes of what he observed 
upon the occasions of his visits to her house, and for the 
period of about twenty-six years, it is seldom that two 
weeks have gone by, without his being at her bed-side, as 
a friend, to talk with her, and give her cheer in the midst 
of her sufferings. He has placed in a scrap-book, numer- 
ous clippings from the newspapers, of publications con- 
cerning her. Those regarding himself I understand from 
him to be substantially authentic. 

His letter published November ioth, 1878, in the Buffalo 
Courier, will be found of great interest. Although repeat- 
ing some things which have already been written, it is 
deemed important to publish it in full. It is as follows : 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHEll. 169 



MOLLIE FANCHER. 



Buffalo Courier. 

Sunday Morning, November 10, 1878. 



Dr. West's Account of a Most Remarkable Case — 
Twelve Years Without Food - Extraordinary 
Physical and Mental Conditions — Clair- 
voyance and Other Preternatural 
Faculties — "Nothing to Die." 

The interest that has been aroused recently in this 
city in the remarkable case of Miss Mollie Fancher, will 
insure an eager perusal for the following letter from Dr. 
West, principal of Brooklyn Heights Seminary, which we 
are kindly permitted to publish. It was written to a lady 
of this city in answer to inquiries as to the facts of Miss 
Fancher's condition : 

The Letter. 

Brooklyn, October 8, 1878. 

Dear Madame: — You request me to write a brief 
sketch of Miss Mollie Fancher in answer to the many 
questions which have doubtless been asked by those who 
have examined the beautiful specimens of her needlework, 
which have been sent to your loan exhibition, which were 
wrought during a most extraordinary illness of more than 
twelve years' duration. To give anything like an adequate 
account of this remarkable girl would require a treatise. 
This I cannot attempt. 

Miss Mary J. Fancher was born in Attleburough, Mass., 
August 16, 1848, and was educated at the Brooklyn 



1*70 THE LIFE OF MOLLiE FANCHER. 

Heights Seminary under my care. She was a sweet girl 
of delicate organization and nervous temperament, and 
was highly esteemed for her pleasing manners and gentle 
disposition. She was an excellent scholar, excelling in belles 
lettres studies ; but her delicate health led to her removal 
from school a short time before the graduation of her 
class in 1864. For three years I lost sight of her, till I 
learned from a Brooklyn paper of her singular condition, 
which resulted from a remarkable accident. 

Her aunt soon after called and invited me to visit 
" Mollie," as she is familiarly called. I did so March 4, 
1867 ; and from that time to the present I have been an 
intimate visitor of the family. I have kept a journal of 
my visits and noted all that w T as important which came 
under my observation. I have used all the sagacity I 
possess to detect any fraud or collusion ; but I have never 
seen anything to excite my suspicion or mar my confidence 
in her integrity. She is a lovely Christian girl and shrinks 
from any public exhibition of herself. Spiritualists and 
curiosity-seekers have sought access to her, but have 
failed. The power of discriminating character is so great, 
that she is rarely every imposed upon. 

The Facts 

to which attention is called can be fully verified. They 
are as follows : 

May 10, 1864 — She was thrown from a horse and 
severely injured. 

June 8, 1865 — In attempting to leave a street car her 
skirt caught and she was dragged for a block over the 
pavement. 

February 2, 1866 — She was taken seriously ill. Her 
nervous system was completely deranged. Her head and 
feet coming together, she would roll like a hoop ; she 
would also stand on her toes and spin like a top. Several 



THE LIFE OF MOLLlE FANClli'.k. 171 

persons were required to prevent her from doing personal 
injury to herself. 

Feburary 8, 1866 — She went into a tranee and was to 
all appearance dead. 

February 17 — She lost her eyesight. 

February 18 — She lost her speech. 

February 19 — She lost her hearing. 

February 22 — She saw, spoke and heard for half an 
hour, and then for a time lost these faculties. 

February 23 — She lost the sense of sound. 

February 24 — The fingers closed. 

February 25 — The jaws locked. 

February 26 — The legs took a triple twist. 

March 7 — The spasms were violent. 

May 20, 1866 — She asked for food, ate a small piece of 
cracker and took a teaspoonful of punch ; it being the 
first food she had taken in seven weeks, and was able to 
retain on her stomach. 

May 27, 1866 — She was shocked by thunder and again 
lost her speech. 

May 28, 1866 — She went into a rigid trance at 2:30 
o'clock, which lasted till 11:30 A. M. the next day. She 
then passed into a relaxed trance till June 1. 

June 2, 1866 — Nourishment was forced by a pump into 
her stomach, which threw her into convulsions. She was 
unconscious and deadly sick with nausea, and suffered 
intensely till Sunday evening, June 3d, when her throat 
closed and she was unable to take any nourishment or 
utter a sound. 

These items are taken from the diary of Mollie's aunt, 
who made a daily record of her condition. I have copied 
but a few of them to show the beginning of her remarkable 
illness. 

My first visit, as I have said, was March 4, 1867. I 
found her lying on her right side with her right arm 



1 72 THE LIFE OF MOLLTE FANCHER. 

folded under her head. Her fingers were clenched in the 
palm of her hand, her thumb lying parallel with them. 
The thumb and fingers of her left hand were in a similar 
position. The right hand and arm were paralyzed, as was 
her body generally, excepting her left arm. She was in a 
trance, sighed and seemed to be in pain. She remained in 
this trance till the 8th, a shorter time than usual at this 
period of her illness. Her trances often lasted from ten 
to twelve days. 

I find my letter is growing so large I must condense 
my journal observations and neglect any chronological 
order. 

I will speak of her 

Mental and Physical Condition. 

First, her physical. For twelve years or more she has 
lain in one position on her right side. For nine years 
she was paralyzed, her muscles only relaxing under the 
influence of chloroform. For the last three years she has 
been in a new condition — the limp instead of the rigid. 
Her muscles are so relaxed that her limbs can be moved 
without the aid of choloform. While passing into this 
state her sufferings were intense. For days it did not seem 
possible that she could live. Her eyes were open and 
staring. For nine years they had been closed. Now they 
were open and never closing day or night. They were 
sightless. She could swallow, but take no food ; even the 
odor of it was offensive. During this twelve years' ill- 
ness there have been times when she had not the use of 
any one of her senses. For many days together she has been 
to all appearance dead. The slightest pulse could not 
be detected ; there was no evidence of respiration. Her 
limbs were as cold as ice, and had there not been some 
warmth about her heart she would have been buried. 
During all these years she has virtually 



the life of mollie fancher. 1 73 

Lived Without Food. 

Water, the juices of fruits and other liquids have been 
introduced into her mouth, but scarcely any of them ever 
make their way to her stomach. So sensitive has this 
organ become it will not retain anything within it. In 
the early part of her illness it collapsed, so that by plac- 
ing the hand in the cavity her spinal column could be 
felt. There was no room for food. Her throat was 
rigid as a stick. Swallowing was out of the question. 
Her heart was greatly enlarged, severe pains passed from 
it through her left side and shoulder. With slight excep- 
tions she has been blind. When I first saw her she had 
but one sense ; that of touch. With that she could read 
with many times the rapidity of one by eyesight. This 
she did by running her fingers over the printed pages with 
equal facility in light or darkness. With the finger, she 
could discriminate the photographs of persons, the faces 
of callers, etc. She never sleeps, her rest being taking in 
trances. The most delicate work is done in the night. 
She performs none of the ordinary functions of life, ex- 
cept that of breathing. The circulation is sluggish, and 
as a consequence there is very little animal heat. She 
longs to die, but says she cannot, as there is nothing to 
die. Such is a brief statement of her bodily condition. 
Second — To me 

Her Mental State 

is more extraordinary. Her power of clairvoyance, or 
second sight, is marvelously developed. All places in 
which she takes any interest are open to her mental vision. 
Distance interposes no barriers. No retirement, however 
secluded, but yields to her penetrating gaze. She dic- 
tates the contents of sealed letters, which have never 
been in her hands, without the slightest error. She 



174 THE L1FE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

visits the family circles of her relations and acquaintances 
in remote places and describes their attire and their oc- 
cupations. She points out any disorder of dress, however 
slight, as the basting thread in the sleeve of a sack which 
to ordinary sight was concealed by the arm. Any article 
which has been mislaid she sees and tells where it may 
be found. She discriminates in darkness the most deli- 
cate shades of color with an accuracy that never errs. 
She works in embroidery and wax without patterns. She 
conceives the most beautiful forms and combinations of 
forms. She never studied botany or took a lesson in wax- 
work, and yet she 

Never Mistakes 

the forms of leaf or flower. Leaves with their ribs or 
veins, their phylotaxis ; flowers, with calyx, coralla, 
stamens with their anthers are given with a most truthful 
regard to nature. Holding pen or pencil in her left-hand, 
she writes with extraordinary rapidity. Her penmanship 
is handsome and legible. She once wrote a poem of ten 
verses in as many minutes — her thoughts flowing with the 
rapidity of lightning. In cutting velvet leaves for pin- 
cushions, like the sample sent you, she held the scissors 
by the knuckles of thumb and forefinger of the left hand, 
and bringing the velvet with thumb and finger of her 
right hand, she cut the leaves as sharply and without 
ravel as though they had been cut with a punch. These 
leaves do not differ in size or form more than leaves 
growing on tree or shrub. In the early part of her sick* 
ness, she cut more than two thousand such leaves. In 
April, 1875, she worked up two hundred and fifty ounces of 
worsted; to December, 1875, she had written six thousand 
five hundred notes and letters. She has kept an account of 
all the expenses of the family during her sickness. She 
keeps a daily journal, except when in trances of longer 



THE LIFE OF MOLEIE FANCHER. 1 75 

duration than twenty-four hours. In passing into the 
new condition, three years ago, of which I have spoken, 
she forgot everything that had occurred in the previous 
nine years. When she was able to speak, she inquired 
about matters that occurred at the beginning of her ill- 
ness — the nine intervening years were a perfect blank to 
her. 

Study for the Psychologist. 

But I must take leave of this subject. The incredu- 
lous will not accept it — and it is not surprising. Miss 
Fancher is not to be judged by ordinary laws. Her state 
is abnormal — a species of modified catalepsy, which has 
deranged the ordinary action of mind and body. It is a 
rich mine for investigation to the physiologist and the 
psychologist ; and with them I leave the case. 

Very respectfully, 

CHARLES E. WEST. 



Prof. Henry M. Parkhurst, an astronomer of note, and 
a thorough scientist, who resides nearly opposite the resi- 
dence of Miss Fancher on Gates avenue, Brooklyn, and, 
whose family was on intimate terms with the family of 
Miss Fancher, made a careful investigation of her case, 
which, as will be seen, caused much comment, and the fol- 
lowing publication resulted. Prof. Parkhurst has at my 
request reaffirmed, in writing, his conclusions made in 1869. 
His article appeared in the New York Herald, November 
30th, 1878, preceded by the following : 



1]6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

(Editorial.) 
EXPERIMENTS IN CLAIRVOYANCE. 



Professor Parkhurst's interesting letter detailing an at- 
tempt to test the clairvoyant powers of Miss Fancher, the 
Brooklyn lady whose strange case has aroused a form of 
curiosity which seems latent in every man and woman, is 
the most important paper yet called forth by the discus- 
sion of this case. It seems hardly probable that a man of 
scientific bent and methodical business habits, as the 
writer of the letter is known to be, could have been de- 
ceived at any stage of the experiment, the details of which 
he gives so minutely to the public, and it is equally im- 
probable that any of his assistants could have been 
familiars of the lady and thus unconsciously assisted her 
to that second sight which, under certain conditions, 
seems possible through the eyes of another. The sup- 
posed clairvoyant reading of Miss rancher was imperfect, 
which is a peculiarity of all attempts at second sight ; but 
this fact is rather of the nature of proof than disproof, if 
there is any real connection between exhausted physical 
force and unusual mental vision, as has sometimes been 
argued by materialists, who deny that there is anything 
more in clairvoyance than is explicable upon physical 
grounds. While the intelligent public will wish the lady 
good riddance of the swarms of inquirers who beset her 
without respect for her feeble health, it will also hope that 
some competent person or persons may be allowed oppor- 
tunity for investigating a case which, if all that it is said to 
be, is of exceptional importance in its relations to physical 
and mental science. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. I 77 

(New York Herald.) 
IS IT MIND READING? 



Miss Mollie Fancher's Talent — How She Told the 

Contents of Papers in Sealed Envelopes — 

Professor Henry M. Parkhurst's 

Statements. 

To the Editor of the Herald: 

In view of the recent publications with regard to the 
remarkable case of Miss Mollie Fancher, I think it is time 
for me to make a statement in detail of the test of clair- 
voyance which I made by means of a sealed envelope in 
June, 1867. These publications have been thus far made 
without her consent and against the wishes of Miss Fancher 
and her friends ; and as one of her friends I shall continue 
to keep silence with reference to the physical aspects of 
the case. But I have obtained from her permission to lay 
before your readers an exact statement of this one exper- 
iment, because it demonstrates, as it seems to me, so far 
as it is possible for a single experiment to demonstrate a 
general principle, that there may be a clairvoyance inde- 
pendent of mind reading. I have before me the contents 
of the original envelope and two statements, one of which 
was written at the time, and the other, containing more 
detail, prepared two years later at the request of her 
physicians. These have been returned to me for this pur- 
pose by Miss Fancher, who had possession of them ; and 
as they will be much better evidence than my present rec- 
ollection, I will give the two statements in full. They are 
as follows : 

Tests of Mind Reading. 

The accompanying envelope and its contents were pre- 
pared to test the mode in which Miss Fancher reads 



Ijtt THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

unopened letters or sees, to learn whether it is through 
the mind of some other person or direct vision. The 
smaller envelope was first prepared, but not being entirely 
satisfactory was not inserted as a test. The printed slip 
was so selected that no living person could by any pos- 
sibility have any conception of its contents. It is prob- 
able that no human being had ever read a word of it. I 
knew that it was taken from the bills of the Maryland 
Constitutional Convention, and knew what subjects were 
treated of in that constitution. I have since ascertained 
that it was cut from the original Judiciary bill, being now 
section 7 of article 4. 

After making several statements with regard to the 
contents of facts known to me, she stated that the printed 
slip was about " court" and "jurisdiction" (the words 
being there) and contained the figures, " 6, 2, 3, 4." Sub- 
sequently she was reported to me to have said that it con- 
tained the words, " No judges can see it." The letter was 
returned to me with the seal intact, and was opened in 
my presence. These I still have. 

I regard the proof as complete that she read the 
printed slip so far as stated above, absolutely independent 
of all human knowledge of its contents. 

HENRY M. PARKHURST. 

New York, June 3, 1867. 

P. S. — The words, " No judge shall sit/' passed through 
two messengers before reaching me, and were changed on 
the way. I have good reason to believe they were accur- 
ately read at first. 



Independent Clairvoyance. 

In order to test the mode by which Miss Mollie 
Fancher could read unopened letters, or see, whether 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 79 

through the mind of some other person or by direct 
vision, I enclosed in an envelope a printed slip, so selected 
that no living person could by any possibility have any 
conception of its contents. It is probable that no human 
being had ever read a word of it. She first stated cor- 
rectly several facts concerning writing within the envelope 
and known to me, the writing being too small to be easily 
read without a glass, while she seemed reluctant to read 
the large print which was not known to me. I do not know 
how she read this writing excepting that it must have 
been either directly or from my mind. She then stated 
that the printed slip was about " Court." I was not satis- 
fied ; for although I did not know it was there I might 
have guessed it, and by a not very remarkable coincidence 
the word might have been there. She next read the word 
"jurisdiction," stating positively that the word was there. 
I was still not completely satisfied, for the same reason as 
before. She then stated that the slip contained the 
figures " 6, 2, 3, 4." This I regarded as decisive, for I 
had no idea that there were any figures upon the slip, and 
should have guessed that there were not. The letter was 
returned to me with the seal intact, and was opened in my 
presence. The word " court " occurs four times, "juris- 
diction " once, and the figures " 6, 2, 3, 4, 5," and no 
other figures. 

Two points, perhaps, deserve further explanation : 
First— The selection of the printed slip. As an official 
reporter of the Maryland Constitutional Convention in 
1864 I received several copies of every bill, portions of 
which I had cut out and used. I took a pile of these bills 
and cut through so as to form a large number of slips of 
envelope size, of which I saw only that on the top. The 
outside portion was destroyed. A friend in my presence 
placed the package behind his back, selected one from the 
interior and placed it in the envelope and destroyed the 



l8o THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

remaining slips. We then sealed the envelope, other 
papers having been placed in it so that no sunlight could 
penetrate it. 

Second — The envelope was first sealed as usual, with 
mucilage, and then with sealing wax. The seal was in- 
tentionally done with some roughness, so as to leave an 
irregular edge. In order that myself and friends might 
know that the seal had not been tampered with, we each 
carefully scrutinized the accidental configuration of the 
edge of the sealing wax, and selected certain minute 
peculiarities as the test. Those peculiarities would have 
been destroyed by the opening of the seal. We were all 
satisfied each by his own selected tests, that the seal was 
precisely as we left it, entirely irrespective of any 
opinions we might have as to the moral probability of any 
deception. While, therefore, I am rather strengthened in 
the belief that that clairvoyance which derives itsknowledge 
from other minds is most common and most easy, I know 
beyond the possibility of doubt that independent clairvoy- 
ance is also possible. Nearly two years have elapsed 
since the experiment, and no one has suggested any point 
in which it fails to be an experimentum crucis. 

HENRY M. PARKHURST. 

No. 172 Gates avenue, Brooklyn, April 24, 1869. 



Is It Mind Reading ? 

Nearly ten years have elapsed since this second state- 
ment was written, and I have not yet been able to con- 
ceive any respect in which any test could have been made 
more satisfactory. My former statements are so definite 
that I need add but little. At that time she could not 
speak, so that all that was expected or desired from her 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 151 

was so much of an indication of the contents of the 
printed slip as should be absolutely beyond guessing or 
chance. It was for this reason that she gave me the 
numbers in preference to words, because they could be 
easily indicated by raps. When she first stated to me 
that the paper contained those figures in that order, and I 
am not sure that she was not interrupted and thus pre- 
vented from adding the number 5, I could not understand 
how the figures could be there at all. Then it occurred 
to me that probably they were some small figures put by 
the printer at the bottom of the bill. It was not until 
the envelope was opened, and found to contain section 6, 
with the lines numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, that the idea occurred 
to me that the line numbers could possibly have been 
upon the slip. 

The only other point that seems to have been omitted 
in my former statements is that I entered at the time upon 
my pocket memorandum book at her house the contents 
of the envelope as she stated them to me. Then I took 
the envelope unopened to my office in New York, which 
the " friend" mentioned in the second statement occupied 
with me, and the envelope was carefully scrutinized by 
each of us, and by another gentleman whom we invited 
to be present. I then communicated to them the con- 
tents as stated to me, and immediately afterward opened 
the envelope in their presence with the result already 
given. This, therefore, was as much an independent test 
to my friend as to me, for he knew it was impossible that 
there could have been any collusion on my part. This 
friend was Dr. Edwin Leigh, well known to educators as 
the inventor of pronouncing orthography, which is now 
used in teaching children to read in all the public schools 
in St. Louis, Boston, Washington and other cities. 



1 82 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FaNCHER. 

Dr. Leigh's Statement. 

From Dr. Leigh I have obtained the following : 
I have read the above statements and they exactly ac- 
cord with my recollection. I think William Henry Burr,* 
now of Washington city (possibly it was William Blair Lord) 
was present at the time of the sealing up of the envelope, but 
was out of the city at the time we opened it. John H. 
Bazin, then the printer of the Christian Leader, f and 
one of his compositors were present at the time the envel- 
ope was opened. We were all satisfied that it could not 
have been tampered with. I may add that from the manner 
in which the paper was selected and inserted in the envelope 
I think it was absolutely impossible for any one to know 
or to find out by the ordinary use of his senses what paper 
was in the envelope without opening it. The opaque 
papers placed on each side of the contents were such as 
to render it impossible to read them by transmitted light. 
It seemed to me conclusive proof that if there be such a 
thing as mind reading this could not be a case of it. 

EDWIN LEIGH, 

No. 1,035 Fulton Avenue, 

Brooklyn." 



For myself, with my other knowledge of the case, I 
should not have regarded the sealing of the envelope 
important ; but I wished the test to be such as not to in- 
volve the possibility of deception, and to be so corrobo- 
rated by independent observers that in the mouth of two 
or three witnesses every word might be established. I 
still believe that in this I was successful. I may 
add that one reason why Miss Fancher and her friends 

* Still living there. t Now in Health Dep't, N. Y. City. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLlE iam.uer. 183 

have objected to the publication of any of the facts of her 
case is, that the result has always been that she has been 
immediately beset by that class of persons who are so 
wanting in delicacy and common sense that, although 
strangers, they will intrude upon the home of a sick 
woman to gratify their own selfish ends. It is true that 
many of them profess to believe that they can do her 
good ; but if they were honest in that they would go to 
her friends or her physicians, and not make that profession 
the excuse for annoying her. Even her circle of friends 
has now become so great that, unless they exercise much 
consideration, she will have no time for rest. 

HENRY M. PARKHURST. 
New York, Nov. 26, 1878. 



I have carefully reviewed the above publication of my 
correspondence in relation to Miss Mollie Fancher, and 
may add that I have never had occasion to change my 
views as therein expressed. 

HENRY M. PARKHURST. 

Brooklyn, July 20th, 1893. 



184 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER, 



CHAPTER XX. 



Nov. 24, 1878. 
(New York Sun). 

DEAD AND YET ALIVE! 



The Extraordinary Case of Miss Fancher of 
Brooklyn. 



FACTS VERIFIED. BY ABUNDANT TESTIMONY. 



A Mental Sight that is not the Clap-Trap of 
Clairvoyance. 



Lying for Thirteen Years Almost Motionless, and 
at Times Cold with the Chill of Death and 
Pulseless ; Blind, yet Reading with Perfect 
Ease ; Seeing and Describing Acts and Persons 
Far Removed from her Bedside — Mental Phe- 
nonema that Might Seem Incredible Except for 
the Testimony of Physicians, Clergymen, Teach- 
ers, and Trustworthy Friends — Without Food 
for Months at a Time — Seeming Never to Sleep. 

In Downing street, Brooklyn, has lain for thirteen years 
Miss Mary J. Fancher, much of the time in a trance-like 
condition, with feeble heart pulsations, sluggish and almost 
imperceptible respiration, and the chill of death upon her 
flesh. At times she has been transformed into a cheertul, 
vivacious, intelligent, entertaining young woman, and 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE EANCHER. 185 

then she has relapsed into speechlessness, blindness, deaf- 
ness, and entire paralysis of the senses. She has devel- 
oped most astonishing powers, resembling second sight or 
clairvoyance, reading with ease the contents of sealed let- 
ters, describing articles in hidden packages, perusing 
books while absolutely blind. Sometimes her powers are 
voluntary, at other times they are unconsciously exercised. 
So little nourishment has she taken that it may be said 
she lives without food. She is surrounded by persons of 
social standing and refinement, and has always been ex- 
ceedingly sensitive to any public mention or knowledge of 
her condition. She has ever repelled any effort to couple 
her manifestations with those of clairvoyants ; has begged 
to be allowed to live and die in the retirement of her 
home, unmolested by strangers, and accessible only to her 
friends. Clergymen, physicians, men of letters and of 
intelligence have visited her. Among many who have 
taken a special interest in her are the Rev. Dr. Joseph 
T. Duryea, Pastor of the Classon Avenue Presbyterian 
Church ; the Rev. Dr. Henry J. Van Dyck, pastor of the 
Clinton Street Presbyterian Church ; Prof. Charles E. 
West, principal of the Brooklyn Heights Seminary ; George 
W. Benson, Henry M. Parkhurst, the astronomer ; James 
B. Smith, the well-known architect ; the Rev. Mr. Moore, 
former pastor of the Washington Avenue (Brooklyn) Bap- 
tist Church, but now of Geneva, N. Y. ; the Rev. Dr. Prime, 
editor of the New York Observer ; Dr. S. Fleet Speir of 
162 Montague street, Dr. Robert Ormiston of 74 Hanson 
place, Dr. Mitchell of 129 Montague street, Dr. Kissam of 
100 Joralemon street, and Dr. Crane of 163 Clinton street. 
Of these gentlemen, Messrs. Speir, West, and Parkhurst 
have made voluminous memoranda of Miss Fancher's 
physical and mental changes and conditions. Miss Fan- 
cher herself has written at great length descriptions of 
her feelings and sensations. 



l86 THE LIFE OF MOLLlE FANCHER. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 



The Nervous System Deranged — Sight, Hearing, 

Speech, and Consciousness Lost and Restored 

— Life Without Nourishment. 

At the age of 12 years Mary J. Fancher was sent to the 
Brooklyn Heights Seminary, in Montague street, and there 
she remained for four years. She had not vigorous health, 
yet she was faithful in every study, and was a close 
student. One of her instructors says that rarely has he 
seen a brighter or more interesting Miss. Her father had 
means to gratify her youthful inclinations. She obtained 
an excellent education, and at the age of 17 years was 
ready to graduate. About that time, in a horseback ride, 
she fell and several of her ribs were broken. From the 
injury she quickly recovered, only to meet with another, 
and more serious accident. As she was alighting from a 
horse car, the conductor, thinking that she had stepped 
to the ground, rang the signal to start, and turning from 
her, walked to the front of the car. Miss Fancher's dress 
caught on the step, and the starting of the vehicle threw 
her with violence to the pavement. She was dragged a 
long distance before her situation was perceived. Her 
spine was seriously injured and her body and head fright- 
fully bruised. In a short time she went into convulsions. 
She was carried to the residence of her aunt, Mrs. Crosby, 
in Downing street, and put into the bed whence she has 
never been removed since, save for a few minutes at a 
time. 

This was early in 1865. Very soon after the accident 
she underwent most astonishing physical changes. Her 
nervous system was uncontrollable whenever she was in 
any manner excited, while she was absolutely paralyzed 



IIIK I, IKK UK JMOKKIK KANC1IKK. I 87 

at other times. In succession she was bereft of vision, 
speech, and hearing. From violent spasms she drifted 
into a trance-like state, from which it required*the unre- 
mitting efforts of physicians and friends to arouse her. 
At the expiration of twenty days her faculties were all re- 
stored. For half an hour she saw, articulated, and list- 
ened. Then these three senses deserted her again, and 
within ten more days her fingers became clenched, her 
jaws locked, her limbs twisted. Spasms were thereafter 
more frequent and violent. 

Life Without Food. 

The days slipped away into weeks before she was able 
to keep any food on her stomach, and it was just short of 
two months that she was without nourishment. Then 
very light food was one day given her with seemingly 
beneficial results. She has eaten altogether since that 
day — nearly thirteen years ago — not so much food in the 
aggregate as an ordinarily healthful girl of her age would 
eat in forty-eight hours. 

Three months and a half after the accident she went 
into a rigid trance for twenty-one hours, and then passed 
into a relaxed trance that lasted for three days. Her 
throat became paralyzed, and she could neither swallow 
nor utter a sound. Her right arm doubled up back of her 
head and became fixed there with the rigidity of death. 
A year later this condition was followed by absolute rig- 
idity of body, with the exception of the left arm and hand, 
which she was able to use. This latter condition lasted 
for nine years, in all of which time she was continually 
drifting into and out of trances. She continued to be 
blind, the pupils of her eyes being rolled upwards, and the 
whites only visible when the lids were parted for examin- 
ation. Very tightly indeed were the lids sealed, and with 
difficulty were they opened. She had the power of speech, 



1 88 THE LIFE OF MOLLlE FANCHER. 

however, almost all of the time, although it left her at 
intervals. 

Three years ago the rigidity of her body relaxed and 
sight and hearing were restored. Memory of everything 
that had happened in the nine years disappeared. She 
could not recognize friends whose acquaintance had been 
made in that period. Her thoughts went back to events 
that were happening when she sank into the nine years' 
stupor, and she began to talk of them as though they had 
occurred an hour before. In all the nine years she had 
been in a semi-unconscious condition, possessed, however, 
at times of astonishing mental vigor and of mechanical 
ingenuity. She refused food when offered to her, saying 
it made her sick. Dr. Speir and Dr. Ormiston forced food 
into her stomach with the pump, and, after paralysis of 
the throat came on, tried to feed her through a silver tube 
inserted in the neck. Food sickened her, however, and, 
eventually, all efforts to induce her to take nourishment 
were abandoned. At long intervals she expressed a wish 
for the juice of some fruit, for a bit of candy, but she re- 
jected solid matter, and for weeks and months, according 
to her own assertion and that of her attendants, she swal- 
lowed nothing. Her physical condition was constantly 
changing. One day she was without sense except touch ; 
the next she could hear, and taste, and talk. But her 
eyes did not open until at the end of the nine years. 

Cold, As Though In Death. 

At intervals during these nine years the body frequently 
became as cold as though in death, no warmth being de- 
tected except in the region of the heart. That organ kept 
up a slow, measured pulsation, except when she went into 
trances ; then its beating was often imperceptible. Her 
head and shoulders retained their normal condition, but 
P oon after each of these attacks her legs would be drawn 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 189 

up and contorted, her feet contracted. At the same time, 
to quote the language of her physicians, "her intestines 
shrivelled and wasted away, leaving little more than a 
coating of skin over the back bone in the cavity they had 
occupied. They became almost entirely inoperative, and 
for years were completely so." She was so sensitive to 
heat in the nine years' period of rigidity that fire was not 
lighted in her room, nor was the temperature raised in any 
manner. In mid-winter her only covering was a single 
sheet, and the window was kept partly open. In all these 
years her right arm remained bent behind her head, and 
when relaxation returned at the end of that period, the 
member was not released from its tension, as was the rest 
of the body. The arm remains still in the same cramped 
position. 

For the last three years her physical changes have been 
frequent and painful, and she has successively lost and re- 
gained several of the senses. From the first she has not 
slept, except while in a trance. Several times in the 
earlier years it was thought she was dead, so cold had her 
body become, so rigid her limbs and flesh, so motionless 
her lungs and heart. But vigorous rubbing with stimu- 
lating liquors, and persistent attention, brought her again 
to consciousness. While in the nine years of rigidity she 
suffered intensely from neuralgic pains. These the phy- 
sicians became convinced were increased by the bad con- 
dition of her teeth, that suddenly had begun to decay. A 
dentist was summoned to extract them, but the jaws were 
so locked that it was not until chloroform was adminis- 
tered that her mouth could be opened. Then nearly every 
tooth was removed. On recovering from the influence of 
the chloroform she went into the most violent of all the 
spasms she had. 



I90 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

POWERS OF SECOND SIGHT. 



Sealed Letters Deciphered — Distant Friends Seen 

and Their Surroundings Described — Works 

of Art Fashioned by a Blind Girl. 

No sooner had Miss Fancher emerged from her first 
trance, soon after the accident, than she astonished her 
relatives by an extraordinary description of what she had 
seen while in that condition. It was unmistakable second 
sight. As the trances continued the manifestations in- 
creased. She watched and related in detail the movements 
of the family's friends in different parts of the city, and 
ultimately narrated what was happening to those who 
were many miles away. She read letters that were 
enclosed in envelopes and kept in the pockets of those 
about her. She recognized persons who rang the door 
bell, while they were still outside the house, and, of 
course, not visible to her. She read books whose covers 
were closed, and newspapers that were folded. Every 
day brought some new and astonishing development of 
this power. Yet with all this was the most sensitive 
repugnance towards letting her condition become known 
to the general public through the newspapers, or towards 
being a subject of talk or gossip by strangers. Her 
friends were always welcome to her bedside, but it was 
long before a stranger was admitted, and yet longer before 
she could be persuaded to show her powers to any but the 
most intimate friends. This sensitiveness continues even 
to the closing of the thirteenth year of her illness. She 
will not consent that her friends shall give any informa- 
tion concerning her that is intended for publicity. And 
they have so far acceded to her desires that, although 
repeatedly sought for, it is not until very recently that 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 191 

any details of her curious existence have been obtained. 
She numbers among her frequent visitors, clergymen, 
physicians, scholars, and men of science, many of whose 
names are mentioned in this article, and all of whom are 
instantly attracted by her marvelous condition. She Jies 
in a modest yet comfortable home, surrounded by the 
fashionable avenues of that part of Brooklyn known as the 
Hill. Her intelligent and lady-like bearing, the unques- 
tionable position of those with whom she is surrounded, 
her unmistakable truthfulness, the abhorrence with which 
she regards publicity, and the absence of any motive for 
enriching herself or her friends by the use of her gifts, 
seem to those who have studied her case to preclude the 
possibility of intentional deception or imposition. 

Her Appearance in Trance. 

It is in the condition of trance that Miss Fancher 
makes her most astonishing revelations. At these times 
she suddenly starts as though charged from an electric 
battery, and instantly becomes rigid in every joint and 
muscle. Her face takes on sometimes a most painful 
expression, at others one of positive pleasure ; yet oftener 
it is as the face of one who is dead. To those unaccus- 
tomed to seeing her, the conviction that she is indeed 
dead is irresistible. A deathlike pallor creeps over the 
already pale face. Not the slightest movement is percep- 
tible in any of her muscles. She ceases to breathe. 
Her body becomes cold. Her heart -gives out no pulsa- 
tions that are easily detected, although her physicians 
have not convinced themselves that it does not beat. The 
initiatory start often raises her up into a half-reclining 
position, in which she remains as immovable as though she 
were of marble. Every one who has seen her in this con- 
dition speaks of the beauty and pathos of the scene — the 
ashen complexion ; the brown, fine waving hair streaming 



I92. THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

toward her shoulders, yet not reaching them ; the fault- 
less features, neither wrinkled nor drawn nor wasted, and 
yet not rounded and ruddy as in her school-girl days ; 
one hand and graceful arm transfixed in its position at 
the instant of attack, perhaps pointing upward, perhaps 
extended to receive a visitor's salutation, perhaps folded 
over her breast ; the other arm bent behind her head as 
though she were resting upon it ; the eyes closed. 

She remains thus sometimes for half an hour, some- 
times for half a minute. She has remained so for twenty- 
four hours. After she recovers, the breathing for a few 
seconds is very labored, and she is exhausted, the muscles 
relax to their former condition, and she settles back upon 
her pillow with a very marked expression of either acute 
sorrow or great pleasure upon her face, for her experiences 
in the trance give her one or the other of these sensations. 

The trances are the only rest she obtains. She never 
sleeps. Day and night are alike to her. She can distin- 
guish persons, forms and colors with as much accuracy at 
midnight as at midday, although it is established beyond 
question that she has not the sight of her natural eyes, 
nor has she such normal sight save in the interval men- 
tioned since the beginning of the attack. 

The Effect of Excitement. 

Any undue excitement throws her into a trance — a 
thunder clap, the firing of a cannon, the unexpected in- 
trusion of a stranger into her room, worry over an absent 
member of the household ; and the trances are repeated 
with rapidity until her mind is again in repose. Often- 
times, when worried over the absence of some loved one, 
she has said, "I must search for her," and has gone into 
the trance. On emerging therefrom, if asked whether her 
search was successful, she answers promptly if in the 
affirmative ; "Yes, I saw her in street ; she will soon 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 93 

be home," and very soon in walks the wanderer. Some- 
times she is not successful in several attempts, but she 
ceases not until satisfied. At other times her vision 
wanders. It has gone to a summer seat on the Hudson, 
where were several of her friends, and she has afterward 
been able to describe minutely the houses, the barns, the 
meadows, and fences, the water in front of and the wood- 
land in the rear of the dwelling, and with a fidelity that is 
instantly recognized by those familiar with the region. 
When scientific men and physicians have produced some 
extraordinarily difficult tests she has been obliged to wait 
until the trance condition came upon her ; for it does not 
seem always to be voluntary. But if it is a simple ques- 
tion of reading an ordinary sealed letter, or announcing 
the arrival of a person at the street door, she easily 
solves the difficulty without recourse to the trance. As 
she rests continually upon her right side, her face is 
averted from the entrance to the room. Yet she often- 
times knows who enters, although unable to turn her head, 
and is quick to discern any peculiarity or change of dress. 
If a gentleman friend puts on a white necktie in early 
spring, after having worn a black one, she is quite likely 

to cry out, her face averted : " Good afternoon, Mr. ! 

Where did you get your necktie ? " It has been deemed 
necessary to darken her room, and the shades are tightly 
drawn; yet the darkness does not affect her vision. She 
is ever busy in the darkness, reading or at needle or wax- 
work, or casting up the accounts of the family, for she 
keeps a record of every expenditure. She writes letters 
with astonishing rapidity, in a neat, legible hand ; al- 
though it is certain she cannot see with normal sight, and, 
mindful of the interest that her condition may excite 
among scientific men, she has kept a complete record of 
her feelings, her sensations while in trance and out of it, 
her religious beliefs as strengthened or shaken by the 



194 THE LIFE 0F MOLLIE FANCHER. 

revelations of her peculiar state, and of everything that 
she thinks will interest her friends. This record she 
guards with care. She is willing that it may be given to 
the public after her death, but not until then. 

Her fondness for dogs and cats, birds and squirrels has 
amounted almost to a passion, yet, strangely enough, her 
pets do not live long. Whether she draws the life from 
them has been an interesting study for some of the men 
of intelligence who have visited her. 

Persons who have entered the room have found her 
apparently doing nothing, and have asked her why she 
was idle. "Oh, I am reading such and such a book." 

" Well, where is it ? " 

"Under the bedclothes, here," and she produces it and 
talks of its contents. 

Blind, Yet Discriminating Colors. 

While Miss Fancher's eyes were absolutely sightless, 
the eyelids being closed and the eyeballs fixed as though 
in death, she was able with facility and without seeming 
effort, to make marvels of fancy work. For her gentle- 
men friends she embroidered suspenders and worked 
slippers and watch pockets, and for companions of her 
girlhood she made needlework of all kinds, pin cushions 
and wax flowers. Every stitch was in proper place, every 
shade of colored thread and worsted was correctly drawn. 
Her handiwork was as near perfection as could be. Some 
of it was sent to fairs, where its maker being unknown it 
was pronounced superior to all others of its kind ex- 
hibited. Sometimes she worked from paper patterns 
purchased at a fancy store, sometimes from other fancy 
work, but oftener she originated her designs. It was 
impossible to deceive her in the quality or shade of the 
materials with which she worked, her rare power of so- 
called second sight enabling her to detect any flaw with 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHliR. I95 

greater accuracy than did the natural vision of her friends. 
Once, when a peculiarly delicate effect, in a piece of 
worsted work called for an especial shade, it was neces- 
sary to ask a gentleman friend to procure it for her in 
New York city. Miss Fancher evinced considerable 
anxiety lest an error should be made in the selection, and 
gave more minute directions concerning its purchase than 
was her practice. In due time her friend returned with 
the parcel. " You've bought the wrong shade, I am sorry 
to say," was the greeting she gave him before he had so 
much as spoken to her, and while the worsted was yet in 
his pocket. 

"It's just according to sample, Miss Mollie. The 
salesman was very particular to compare them." 

"Yes, he may have thought so, but it's a shade too 
light, and it will not do." 

" The worsted was produced and the pattern from 
which the work was to be made was put by its side. 
Those in the room could not detect a difference. The 
sick girl insisted that it was too light. "Take it back, 
please, when you are passing, and the expert will con- 
vince you that I am right," she said. Back went the 
gentleman with the worsted. 

"You gave me the wrong shade," said he to the clerk. 

That young man examined and denied. 

" Call your expert," said the ambassador, and the expert 
came. 

" It is a lighter shade than the sample," was the 
expert's decision, and he quickly produced the proper one. 

" This is just right," was Miss Fancher's greeting, as 
the second parcel was handed to her unopened. 

Marvels in Wax Work. 

Yet more astonishing are her effects in wax work. She 
fashions in wax beautiful designs — windows filled with 



I96 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

flowers and vines and butterflies, bouquets, crosses and 
anchors. Once asked how she was able to do all this, she 
answered : " Oh, I see the leaves and then make others 
like them." 

All this wax work making and embroidery and needle- 
work on canvas is made while one hand is rigidly held 
back of her head. With this hand she holds her work and 
plies the needle with the other. Even though she had the 
sight of her eyes, it must be impossible for her to see the 
work in the position in which she is compelled to hold it. 
She works monograms of her own fancy into the silk 
handkerchiefs of her gentlemen friends, and puts butter- 
flies and leaves and birds upon them with rare taste and 
skill. One of the most beautiful of her wax work produc- 
tions — an exquisite and delicate bower of roses and 
creepers, adorns the parlor of Prof. West's Brooklyn 
Heights Seminary, 126 Montague street. She has not 
neglected any of her friends ; all have some little gem 
of her own fashioning. 

Watching Her Distant Friends. 

The faculty that the young lady's friends have most 
frequently noticed in her is that of following some of her 
acquaintancs — those who are dearest to her as a rule — 
from place to place. Hundreds of times she has done 
this with scarcely an error as to place or occurrence. For 

example, one afternoon she suddenly said : " I see 

(mentioning the gentleman's name) in his office. (The 
office was in New York.) He is closing his desk. (After 
five minutes' pause.) He is walking down Fulton street. 
(Another pause). Now he is going upon the ferry-boat ; 
now he is getting into a Fulton avenue ear. With him is 
a tall gentleman with black eyes, black hair and mous- 
tache ; they are talking and the car has started. Now 
they are passing the City Hall. There, the tall gentleman 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 1 97 

has got out of the car at St. Felix street and is 

coming on alone. He, too, has got out of the car and is 
coming this way ; I guess he is coming here. Yes, he is ; 
here he comes around the corner ; look out and you will 
see him," and looking from the window the gentleman 
referred to was indeed approaching at a rapid pace and 
was soon in the room. 

" Whom did you ride up with ?" was asked by one of 
the persons to whom Miss Fancher had been describing 
the ride. 

" Mr. ,' 

" Describe him." 

" Tall, black hair, moustache, and dark eyes ; he left 
me at St. Felix street — why ? " 

" Mollie has been watching you for three-quarters of 
an hour or so, and has been telling us about this tall man. 
You had better be careful how you carry yourself," was 
the reply. 

Her Sight Not Omnipresent. 

It may be of interest to those who would seek search- 
ing inquiry into the girl's powers of sight-seeing to know 
that she cannot follow two persons who take different 
directions. This was proved unintentionally by an acci- 
dent a few months only after the remarkable power was 
first developed, and one that was at that time considered 
the most astonishing of her performances. An intimate 
lady friend was convinced that Miss Fancher's powers 
were identical with those possessed by clairvoyants, and 
she wished to consult a clairvoyant that she might com- 
pare the two. Miss Fancher had, from the first, disclaimed 
any connection with so-called clairvoyants. To be classed 
with them or to be suspected of employing their methods, 
so far as she knew what their methods were, gave her 
mental pain. Her sensitiveness upon the subject made 



IE LIFE OF MOLL1E 

her unhappy. Seeming to divine that her powers would 
certainly be called by some clairvoyance, she took especial 
occasion to beg that no clairvoyant, or spiritualist, or 
second-sight seer be permitted to see her. She wished to 
have nothing to do with them. This feeling, therefore, 
led this intimate friend to make no mention of her desire 
to consult a clairvoyant, knowing that it would pain Miss 
Fancher to know of the visit. Before starting, the lady 
called upon the girl and, after a half-hour's stay, started 
to go. At the same time a gentleman friend present 
arose to go. " See if you can follow me where I go," he 
said, as he left the room with the lady. The gentleman 
w T ent to New T York and the lady to a clairvoyant's house, 
where, having tested the clairvoyant's powers to her 
satisfaction, she drifted off into a general talk in 
which Miss Fancher's case was mentioned, and at length 
departed. Thoroughly interested, the lady decided to 
go again to see her. She found the girl sobbing as 
though heart broken. 

" What is the matter, dear," the visitor asked soothingly. 

" You have been to see a clairvoyant about me, and it 
makes me feel, oh, so badly," was the reply, and Miss 
Fancher proceeded to narrate in exact detail through 
what streets the lady had walked, and at what number she 
had rung the bell and been admitted. The details were 
absolutely correct. It was an incident that had interested 
the girl more than any other as yet coming within her 
notice since her changed condition, and is regarded by 
many as proof that things that most directly concern her 
are things which her powers of sight-seeing most clearly 
define. The next time that the gentleman friend called, 
he asked: " Did you follow me the other day, as I asked 
you to ?" to which she answered: " Yes, until your car 

reached Cumberland street; then I saw that Mrs. 

(mentioning her lady friend's name) was doing something 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 199 

that very much interested and pained me, and I could nut 
go with you any further, but had to go with her." She 
seems to have been enabled to follow both in their 
separate paths for a short distance, although they took 
different routes after a few steps together ; but after her 
mind became fixed upon the lady's movements, in which 
seemingly greater mental effort was used, whether re- 
quired or not, her gentleman friend was lost to view. 

Two Curious Instances. 

The two stories of Miss Fancher's powers of sight- 
seeing that her friends tell of with the greatest interest 
are of the return of her uncle Isaac from California, and 
the welcome home, some time afterward, of her lost pet 
dog. Her uncle, Mr. Isaac Crosby, went to California 
before the accident to Miss Fancher, and while she was a 
comparatively little girl. He was strong, healthy and 
robust, with a full face and a big chest. While in Cali- 
fornia he contracted consumption, and nine years after his 
arrival there, returned to Brooklyn, and first of all sought 
Mrs. Crosby, with whom Miss Fancher lives. Prof. West, 
her old instructor, and Mrs. Crosby, sat in her room 
when the door bell was rung. Mrs. Crosby started to 
answer the summons, and as she stepped from the room 
Miss Fancher exclaimed in astonished tones, " Why, its 
Uncle Ike !" 

" Who is Uncle Ike?" asked Prof. W T est. 

" Uncle Ike ! Why, he went to California before I 
went to your school. How he has changed — how sick he 
looks." And Miss Fancher entertained the Professor 
with a description of the uncle's departure for the land 
of gold, how he then appeared, and his contrasted physi- 
ognomy on his return. Meantime Mrs. Crosby had 
opened the door, and, not recognizing her brother, asked 
the visitor's business. Mr. Crosby had indeed so changed 



'HE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

that it required some little talk to convince the sister of 
his identity. After a half hour she returned upstairs and 
saluted Miss Fancher with " Who do you think is down in 
the parlor ?" and Miss Fancher very promptly answered, 
" Uncle Ike, of course, and he is very sick." The girl 
had instantly recognized him, while, of course, it was 
impossible for her to see him. 

Miss Fancher's pet dog had contrived to find a warmer 
place in her heart than had her other pets. He rarely left 
her, and he was much of a companion in her long hours 
of wakefulness. But one day the dog disappeared from 
the house and was seen again no more for some time. 
Miss Fancher mourned for him, but she insisted that he 
would soon return again, and she seemed to be constantly 
looking for him. It was about 2 o'clock one rainy, tem- 
pestuous morning that she aroused Mrs. Crosby. "Get 
up, get up," she cried, " the dog is coming home, I see 
him way down the avenue. He is coming this way and he 
will soon be here." Mrs. Crosby did not hurry and Miss 
Fancher broke out once more, "Here he comes nearer. 
Go down and let him in ; he'll be here by the time you 
get to the door ; there he is across the street — now he's 
on the step." Mrs. Crosby went down and there was the 
lost dog, gaunt, hungry, but happy to get home. He was 
taken to Miss Fancher, and in the silent hours preceding 
the break of day she fed him with the best the house 
afforded. 

A gentleman who had been a frequent visitor entered 
her room one afternoon and, laughingly tossed a wallet in 
the air, saying, " Tell me how much change is in there and 
will give it to you." 

" Sixty-seven cents" was the girl's reply. 

The gentleman did not know himself how much 
money the wallet contained, and counted its contents. 
Miss Fancher's declaration had been correct. 






THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 201 

Her powers of vision seem to have no limit. She has 
not only seen and described the appearance and actions 
of friends in other cities, but has been able to picture the 
doings of very near acquaintances who, for a time, lived 
in the Bermuda islands. 



DR. DURYEA SUGGESTING A THEORY. 



The Mind Freed from the Bondage of the Body — 

Possibly Governed by New Laws— at all 

Events Quickened and Enlarged. 

" I have known of Mollie Fancher for several years," 
said the Rev. Joseph T. Duryea, pastor of the Classon 
Avenue Presbyterian Church. " I have seen 'her, and I 
have bestowed some study and considerable thought upon 
her. After I had become convinced that she really did the 
strange things that were told of her, I mentioned her in 
some of my discourses. Mr. George W. Benson, who is 
well known here in Brooklyn as the Chairman of our Com- 
mittee of One Hundred that undertook to purify city 
politics, and who is this week out of town, saw her day 
after day for years, and was absolutely amazed at her 
powers. I had known of her some time before I went to 
see her, and in passing the house I had once or twice 
stopped to speak with her aunt when she happened to be 
at the door. The afternoon I called upon Miss Fancher, 
I was with Mr. Benson. He entered the room in advance 
of me and motioned me to silence. After he had con- 
versed with her a few sentences he said : " Mollie, who is 
this ? " 

She answered : " I don't see anybody, except you." 
" Look sharp," was the rejoinder, and then the girl 



202 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

made a movement as though in mental effort, and after a 
moment answered, " I see him now ; it's Dr. Duryea." 

" Did you ever see him before ? " 

" Yes, down at the gate, talking to aunt." 

" How long ago ? " 

" About three weeks — the day aunt went down to call 
in the dog." 

" Now, how can you prove to Dr. Duryea that you saw 
him there ? " 

" He wore a rubber coat." 

"Then," added Dr. Duryea, " I remembered that it 
rained, and as I had to go to the church and then to a 
funeral that afternoon I had slipped on my rubber coat. 
I remember it more particularly for the reason that it was 
the last time I ever wore the coat. I gave it to the driver 
as I entered the coach after the funeral, and he hung it 
up to dry by a stove in the livery stable on his return and 
it was burned up. It was on my way from church to the 
funeral that I stopped for a moment only, to talk to 
Mollie's aunt. Mollie's Spitz dog was out on the step 
barking at boys that were teazing it, and the aunt had 
gone out to take it in. The girl described us perfectly." 

" Being convinced then that Miss Fancher practices no 
deception, how are her powers to be explained?" 

" It is impossible to satisfactorily account for them. 
That she has most astonishing powers of seeing friends 
in different parts of the country and city, and of doing 
other almost incomprehensible things, I have not a doubt. 
The child cannot deceive ; she is beyond that ; she does 
not wish to practice imposition. But her physical changes 
have in some manner released her mind from the im- 
prisonment of the body, and she does with it what other 
mortals cannot do with theirs. Here she is deprived first 
of hearing, then of sight, then of speech, her throat para- 
lyzed — sealed up so that nothing could be passed through 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE PANCHER. 20 j 

il — in such a state that you might as well expect her to 
swallow a ramrod as a piece of bread ; her abdominal 
organs in the same condition. The mind or spirit was 
absolutely confined. May it not with a mighty effort have 
burst away, and, once partly freed from the confines of 
the physical body have been governed by other and 
higher laws than those that control it while under the 
bondage of the body ? That men's minds are largely 
subject to their physical condition is well understood. 
Occasionally, as in this instance, under peculiar conditions, 
we find this power, which we call second-sight or clairvoy- 
ance. What it is we have not yet ascertained, for the 
reason, possibly, that so few of the cases have been scien- 
tifically investigated ; no critical comparisons of one case 
with another have been made to discover the analogies. 
I think such instances should have the most widespread 
publicity of descriptions of their mental and physical 
phenomena. The more we know of them the sooner we 
shall solve their mysteries." 

" Miss Fancher sees the images of those who have 
gone before her to the spirit world ? " 

" Miss Fancher unquestionably thinks that she sees 
them and communes with th£m. Yet this is not so incom- 
prehensible as some of her other acts. She has known 
their faces upon earth. With increased mental powers 
naturally comes increased imagination. I can readily 
understand how little increase of imagining it would re- 
quire for you or for me to think in our dreams, or out of 
them, for that matter, that we are talking with those who 
are dead. Men imagine they are sick while they are well, 
and imagine they are well while they are sick, imagine 
almost ever)' conceivable thing ; nevertheless, they always 
have had something from which to work. Miss Fancher 
may think she is in heaven, yet she has read enough in her 
Bible to give her a basis for making a picture of heaven 



204 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

in her mind. While I do not say that she has not seen 
so-called spiritual sights, I can see an explanation of 
why she thinks she has seen them. It is her power of 
sight of things upon earth that are concealed from the 
sight of others that puzzles me. Tests are made of the 
power in which she has absolutely no foundation from 
which to work. How does she arrange and decipher the 
contents of a letter that has been cut into pieces and 
sealed within an envelope — a letter the contents of which 
those who gave it to her had not the slightest notion ? 
Let's settle that before we get into the merits of what it is 
possible may be produced by a heightened imagination ; 
it's the more astonishing performance." 

" Miss Fancher's case is known to many in the neigh- 
borhood, is it not ? " 

" It is ; I very often mention it, and I teach its lesson. 
I like to see such peculiar manifestations of the mind and 
the body made public. They teach the difference of ex- 
istence between the spirit and the flesh, and the superior- 
ity of the one over the other. I have followed her closely, 
and always with no more deep wonderment at her peculiar 
manifestations than admiration of the sweet, contented 
cheerfulness of her disposition, the purity and simplicity 
of her life, and her steadfast hope." 



PROF. WEST'S REVELATIONS. 



A Well-known Brooklyn Man Who Has Spent Hours 

at Her Bedside — A String of Anecdotes — 

New York Preachers Interested. 

Prof. Charles E. West is principal and proprietor of 
the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, at 138 Montague street, 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 205 

and he is widely known throughout the city as a scholar, 
a man of science, and a Christian gentleman. It was in 
his institution that Miss Fancher obtained her education. 
Immediately upon hearing of the accident to her, a 
favorite pupil, he went to see her, and barely a week has 
elapsed since that time in which he has not visited her. 
She has ever been delighted to greet him, and has confided 
to him, as much as to any other, her sensations, her joys, 
her sorrows, her religious beliefs, her secrets. " I have 
been there by day and by night ; have called unexpectedly; 
have remained there for hours at a time," he said yester- 
day, " and I have kept complete memoranda of what I 
have seen and heard. I never knew a more truthful, 
sincere, and intelligent girl than she has proved herself 
from the very first of our acquaintance. I have spent my 
life in study, and I have devoted very much of it for the 
past twelve years to Mollie Fancher's case. She has been 
a revelation to me. I think I have recorded every change 
in her mental and physical condition. I have all the 
results. It would take you half a day to read what I have 
written about her, and even then the wonderful things she 
has done are scarcely touched upon. I have been very 
anxious that a commission of such men as Tyndall and 
Huxley and Agassiz be made up to prosecute a most 
searching inquiry into her condition. Indeed, I had 
arranged with Prof. Wyman of Harvard University to 
come to New York, and, with some one else — we had 
Agassiz in mind — spend weeks with her. As he was about 
to start, Mollie was taken worse. She was then in the 
most death-like condition that we had seen her, and we all 
thought that she must soon pass away. It was deemed 
better to postpone Prof. Wyman's visit until she was 
better able to have an investigation made. But in a few 
weeks the professor died, and Agassiz also soon was gone. 
She outlived both. 



206 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

" I have taken clergymen and physicians to see her. 
She mystifies every one. They are charmed by her 
cheerfulness, her vivacity, her Christian faith. It is 
impossible not to admire her ; yet when they see the 
beautifnl works of art that she fashions without the aid of 
th natural eye, and when they get a glimpse of her won- 
derful power of so-called second sight, they become mute. 
I have seen persons who were afraid of her as they might 
be of a veritable ghost or supernatural apparition. None 
in all the hundreds whom I have seen at her bedside have 
I heard express a suspicion that she is an impostor. To 
see her seems to carry conviction. There is no more 
doubt that she does these wonderful things than that we 
sit here. I have seen her do them. I have sat in the 
twilight of a summer evening and watched her make 
fancy-work articles in colors, her right arm bent back of 
her head and resting upon a pillow, the hand capable of 
being slightly bent at the wrist, her fingers clenched and 
almost immovable. To this hand she carried the work 
in her left one, of which she has had the full use, and then 
the needle danced in and out of the canvas, drawing every 
thread to its proper place and tension, every color to the 
exact spot. I knew she was absolutely blind ; but even 
though she had vision she could not have seen her work 
while it was held in that position. 

The Difference Between Black and Brown. 

" She distinguished colors with an accuracy that made 
the rest of us ashamed of ourselves. One evening a 
physician was there, and he boldly said that he believed 
she could not detect the different shades. Mollie had a 
ball of worsted thread, in which were probably ten or 
twelve colors. She asked the physician to select one, 
and he pulled out a piece. Mollie's face was turned from 
him, but he had no sooner separated it from the others 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 207 

than she cried out 'brown.' It was dark in the room, 
and he went to the window, pushed aside the shutter, and 
examined the worsted. 

'You are wrong,' said he, ' it's black.' 

' It's brown, most assuredly,' reiterated she. 

" The physician supposed he was right ; so he said 
with the utmost confidence, ' For once you are wrong ; it 
is certainly black.' Miss Mollie quietly reached for the 
ball of many colored worsteds, and pulling therefrom a 
thread said : ' Here is a piece of black, that you have is 
dark brown.' The physician compared the two, and then 
saw that he was in error and that she was correct. 

" I sat in the room another night," went on Prof. West, 
warming up with enthusiasm, "after it had become dark. 
Mollie had lost a pet bird — somehow all her pets die very 
soon ; she seems to draw the life right out of them — and 
a friend had sent the skin to be mounted by a taxidermist. 
The stuffed bird was on the mantlepiece. We opened the 
door of the cage in which was a live bird, and as Mollie 
called to it, it flew to her. She fondled with it for a few 
minutes, and then it flew from her. We paid no attention 
to it, but very soon the girl called out to us that the 
live bird was on the mantel, curiously inspecting the dead 
one. It was so dark that we could not see it at all, and 
Mollie's face was turned from the mantel. We made a 
light, and sure enough the canary was in a brown study 
over the bullfinch. The girl was absolutely blind, you 
must remember. The light was extinguished — for light 
seems to make Mollie uneasy, and our conversation went 
on. After a half-hour I asked her what had become of 
the bird, and she answered, 'Why, don't you see him there 
on the mantel, fast asleep ? ' We lighted up again, and 
there the bird was, its head under its wing. 



2o8 . the life of mollie fancher. 

Photographs Recognized. 

" She does all sorts of little things that fill you with 
astonishment. Sometimes I have carried to her a photo- 
graph of some one whom she knew before the accident. 
She always saw and recognized it before it was taken 
from my pocket. I know of many instances in which 
she has read letters while they were in an envelope in the 
pockets of gentlemen. As for books and newspapers, she 
reads them readily, no matter what part of the room they 
are in. When first taken she seemed to read by sense of 
touch, which, by the way, was for many months the only 
sense she possessed. Drawing her thumb over the 
printed lines with great rapidity, she was able to tell for 
a long time thereafter just what the text was. Her 
memory of things that happened while she was in that 
rigid condition was astonishingly accurate. I took her a 
book one day, and she drew her thumb rapidly over the 
title page and began to laugh. Of course I asked the 
cause of her merriment, and she answered that — , men- 
tioning the name of a very dear friend, had two years 
before given her the same book ; and with that she gave 
me a running sketch of its contents in a highly intelligent 
and surprisingly accurate manner. 

" She soon ascertained, however, that it was not 
necessary to touch the words to understand their mean- 
ing, but absorbed the contents of printed or written 
matter. She knows whenever the newspapers print any- 
thing about her before it is read to her. The two things 
that she seems most to dread are, first of all, any 
notoriety through public prints or through the gossip of 
her friends ; and second, the being classed in any manner 
with clairvoyants or second-sight seers or spiritualists, 
and these dislikes alone should go far toward making the 
public believe that she does not attempt imposition. Her 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 209 

excessive sensitiveness to all notoriety, and her sincere 
desire to keep all knowledge of herself from the public, 
remove every motive for deception. To my knowledge 
she never has made a penny by her gifts, although having 
many opportunities to do so. Many persons thinking 
that she is a clairvoyant, have called to consult her, and 
many young men and young women have desired her to 
tell their fortunes, but she has not allowed them to be 
admitted to the room. She knows who her visitors are 
long before they are ushered into the hall below, and she 
allows them to see her, or refuses, just as the whim takes 
her. I took Kossuth's sister there just before her de- 
parture for the Old World. Miss Mollie refused to see 
her. Afterward I asked Mollie for an explanation. t Why, 
I didn't like her looks when she entered the door,' was 
the reply. The door is on the floor below. Another time 
I took a gentleman of reputation as a scholar. She 
directed that he be kept from her room, for the same 
reason; she did not like his looks. While she was blind 
I took a large man with a great black beard to her, and 
said, ' What do you think of this little man with a smooth, 
sharp chin ? ' and without turning her face, which was 
from us, she answered, ' He is very large and has full 
whiskers. I can see him.' She knows what is going on 
all over the country, but whether from her marvelous 
sight-seeing or because she reads it, I am unable to say. 
She is not willing to talk to visitors about her gifts. The 
topic is painful to her. To her friends, however, she is 
more free, and she is quite willing at times to explain her 
sensations. She tells them where she goes and what she 
does. 

" She has revealed things to me of which I had no con- 
ception — mainly while we were talking upon religious top- 
ics. She is as earnest a Christian as I ever knew. What she 
sees only makes her faith the stronger ; and I believe that 



2IO THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

her reason for longing to die is that she may go to 
heaven. I think she has glimpses of the other world, if 
she has not indeed been there. I cannot tell you that 
strangely interesting part of her experience. After she is 
dead it will be known ; but it's more of a revelation than 
that seen by John from the Isle of Patmos." 

"Does she see friends who have gone before her?" 
"Yes" (speaking with great reluctance). "She sees 
many of them. She sees her mother. She longs to be 
with her mother. She says her mother comes to her." 
And the Professor wiped his eyes, nor did he speak there- 
after for many minutes. 

A Committee of Clergymen. 

"Tell me more of the strange things she does." 
" Why ! bless you ! they would fill a book. The trouble 
with your printing them is no one will believe them. I 
have told this girl's history to hundreds ; they laugh at 
me. I told it to Dr. Irenseus Prime. He laughed at me. 
But I brought him over to Brooklyn to see Miss Mollie, 
and he went home convinced, yet mystified. At the next 
meeting of the Chi Alpha, the secret society of New York 
clergymen, Prime, after things began to lag, said, ' Do 
you want to hear an improbable story?' and they all 
shouted, 'We do.' Well, Prime began to tell them the 
facts about Mollie Fancher, and he had not more than 
fairly started before they cried 'Hold — enough — that's 
too much.' 'Hold! yourselves,' cried Prime, ' didn't I 
say I was going to tell you an improbable story,' and he 
made them hear him through. Then they discussed it at 
great length, and appointed a committee to investigate. 
Over to Brooklyn came the committee, and straight to 
me, and I read them from my memoranda for an hour and 
a half, and then they went up and saw Miss Mollie. They 
reported to the Chi Alpha that all the wonderful things 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 2 11 

Prime had told them were true, but it was a case beyond 
their understanding. 

" I don't blame folks for not believing ; it's past belief. 

Why, Dr. was forever making fun of Dr. Speir and 

myself for believing what the girl does, so one day I took 
him up to see her. ' I warrant she will perform none of 
her miracles while I am here,' he said, while on the way. 
We were not fairly seated before the postman's rap was 
heard, and down went Mollie's aunt, Mrs. Crosby, for the 
letter. ' It's from my friend, So-and-so,' said Mollie, when 
her aunt was half way down stairs. Back came Mrs. 
Crosby with the letter, and Mollie began to tell what was 
in it. ' Take the slate,' said I to the unbelieving physician, 
'and Mollie will dictate the contents of the letter.' Mrs. 
Crosby held on to the epistle, and the doctor took the 
slate, and Mollie began to repeat the letter. She did not 
take it in her hand, and she was not within eight feet of 
it. After the Doctor had filled the two sides of the slate, 
Mollie asked Mrs. Crosby to open and read the letter 
aloud. This she did, while the Doctor examined what 
was on the slate. The letter was exactly the same as 
Mollie had dictated. The Doctor went home convinced 
of the girl's marvelous powers. 

" Yes," said Prof. West, in concluding, " I want to see 
a commission of the scientific men of the country investi- 
gate this strange case. The girl is simply a miracle. She 
says she is a miracle, and I know she is one. The entire 
scientific world should know all about her, and I hope the 
time will come when it will." 



212 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



STATEMENT OF DR. S. FLEET SPEIR. 



Relative to the Case of Miss Mollie Fancher, 

Taken July 26th, 1893, at Her Residence, 

160 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn. 

I have treated Miss Mollie Fancher professionally 
since the 6th of April, 1866, and then learned the history 
of her case up to that time. At that time I took charge 
of it, and had in consultation with me Doctor Robert 
Ormiston of this city, and in connection with him I con- 
tinued from time to time in attendance down to the 
present day. 

I have read, and carefully considered a letter written 
by Prof. Charles E. West, dated October, 8th, 1878, in 
which he describes the condition of Miss Fancher up to 
that time. I fully concur with the statements made by 
Prof. West in his letter concerning the case of Miss Fan_ 
cher, with a few exceptions. 

As to her having been paralyzed up to the time of Dr. 
West's statement, as a matter of fact, Miss Fancher has 
never been paralyzed, in the sense that the word is usually 
understood. She has lost the use of her limbs, and at 
times has lost the power of sensation. As nearly as I 
can recollect, for a period of about nine years, her lower 
limbs were in a three twist. The result to the limbs has 
been that instead of being the natural hinge-joint to the 
knee, it approaches the condition of a ball and socket 
joint ; her limbs are drawn up backwards, the ankles bent 
over, and the bottom of the foot bent upwards, and re- 



TMK LIKE OF MOLLtE FANCHER. 2 13 

mains in that condition. This is so of both feet. The 
limbs cannot be straightened out ; they are contracted 
underneath. 

For a period of about nine years, day and night, she 
was subject to trances, spasms and catalepsy. During 
that time the most constant care and attention were re- 
quired to prevent personal injury. In these spasmodic 
conditions she was liable from time to time to be thrown 
upon the floor, and the greatest attention was required, 
and barricades were placed around her bed to prevent 
her doing so. Her spasmodic conditions were so violent 
that she was thrown backward and forward with great 
force and rapidity. There was a back motion which is 
hard to explain, by which she seemed to be thrown into 
the air, rising from her bed. At times her body would 
become rigid, and upon one occasion one portion of her 
body was turned to the right, and the other to the left in 
a distressing manner, and remained so for quite a time, 
she being in a rigid condition. 

To be certain that Miss Fancher was living without 
solid food for the long period of time which has been 
stated, I resorted to giving her emetics, and the result was 
that nothing was thrown from the stomach, showing con- 
clusively that her stomach was empty. During the period 
of nine years the quantity of food which she took into 
her stomach was so little that it was a matter of great as- 
tonishment how life could be sustained. 

With reference to the condition of Miss Fancher's 
eyes : — When I first attended Miss Fancher it seemed to 
me that her eyes were in such a condition that she could 
not see by the use of them. When I first saw her, her 
eyes were glaring open, and did not close; did not close 
day or night, and there were no tears or secretion in them. 
I made the usual test for anaesthesia, even going to the 
extent of touching the ball of the eye with my finger, 



214 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FA*NCHER. 

without receiving any response. During the first part of 
her troubles they were considerably dilated, and not 
changeable by impression of light. The pupils of her 
eyes are still considerably dilated, although not so much 
as formerly, and do not respond to light. The pupil of 
the eye does not change at the approach of light. We 
have caused a careful and critical examination to be made 
by a competent expert — an oculist — in whose skill we 
have great confidence, and agree with him that she can- 
not see by the use of her eyes — at least as a person ordi- 
narily can see. She has the power of seeing with a great 
deal of distinctness, but how she does so I am unable to 
state. This condition as to her eyes has been substanti- 
ally so since I first began to attend her. This feature of 
Miss Fancher's condition relative to her power of sight 
has attracted a great deal of comment. At one time she 
did all her work, crotcheting, etc., back of her head. 
When she selected worsted or color she put it behind her 
head to see it. For nine years her right arm was behind 
her head, where she did her work by bringing the left 
hand up to the right hand, which was back of her head. 
I recall one instance where Dr. Ormiston and myself be- 
ing present, Miss Crosby received a letter from a postman. 
I took the letter in my hand; it was sealed, and Miss 
Fancher at the time being unable to speak, took a slate 
and pencil and wrote out the contents of the letter, which 
on being opened and read, was found to correspond ex- 
actly with the letter. During that time she maintained 
conversation with her physicians and friends by the use 
of the slate, she being unable to speak. On another oc- 
casion she gave me warning that I was likely to be robbed, 
and told me to be on my guard. The sequel was that im- 
mediately after I was robbed of a valuable case of instru- 
ments. On another occasion I had invited a number of 
doctors to call at Miss Fancher's house, and we were 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 215 

waiting for one to arrive, when Miss Fancher said, " He 
is coming ; I see him coming now," and told where he 
was, which was correct. On another occasion I prepared 
a paper which I read before a medical club regarding the 
case of Miss Fancher, and which excited the ridicnle of 
the gentlemen present, when I invited them to visit her 
and see for themselves. It happened upon that evening 
that one of the gentlemen present had been reading a 
clipping of a newspaper which was a very proper thing to 
be read before, and considered by a medical club, but not 
quite the thing to be read by a young lady. He replaced 
it in his pocketbook. On the next day he accompanied 
us to the house of Miss Fancher, and being very skepti- 
cal, advanced to the bedside of Miss Fancher, saying, 
" What have I in my pocketbook ? " She instantly re- 
plied, " Something which you ought not to have there." 
He started back, and said, "Well, I guess that is so," 
and gave place for some other gentleman to see for himself. 

During my acquaintance with Miss Fancher and her 
aunt, Miss Crosby, during her lifetime, the actions and 
conduct of both entitle them to what they always had — 
our highest respect and esteem. 

One remarkable feature during all these years she has 
been confined to her bed is, that she has never been afflict- 
ed with bed-sores, although her right hip, from constant 
pressure, is flattened, and the flesh is gone, so that the 
bone is merely covered by the integument. She has al- 
ways explained, when asked how she saw without the use 
of her eyes, that she saw out of the top of her head. 

Miss Fancher's condition is materially changed from 
what it formerly was. From being exceedingly thin and 
emaciated, she is now quite fleshy. She experiences the 
sense of touch in all her limbs and parts of her body, 
although at one time, about six years ago, there were indi- 
cations of paralysis of the left arm which continued for 



2l6 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

nearly two years, but which have since disappeared. There 
is a little numbness in her fingers at times even now. 

Miss Fancher experiences quite remarkable conditions 
from the action of her heart. At times the chest over 
the heart seems considerably enlarged; it presents some- 
thing the appearance of aedema, but responds to pressure 
in a different manner. It seems more elastic, and every 
day she raises about half an ounce of blood, which comes 
from the mucous membrane of the throat and bronchial 
tubes. The upper portions of the body are quite fleshy. 
Her food at the present time is very light, consisting of 
jellies, fruit, and she drinks great quantities of water. 

When she lost the use of her hands, she wrote with 
her toes, taking the pen between them. 

Upon one occasion, when she had lost the power of 
speech, I was present when some one made a remark, to 
which she took exception. She took a pencil in her left 
hand and rapidly wrote a reply, which at first none could 
read. She had written backward, commencing at the end 
of a line and end of a word, and so to the beginning. By 
holding a looking-glass we readily made it out. It was a 
sharp caustic reply. 

S. FLEET SPEIR, M. D. 



Statement of Dr. Robert Ormiston. 

I have been present at the making of the foregoing 
statement of Dr. S. Fleet Speir. I am familiar with 
nearly all the facts to which he has referred, and in so 
far as I recall them they^re correctly stated by him. I 
also agree with Dr. West in the main, in what he has 
stated in his letter referred to by Dr. Speir. I have seen 
Miss Fancher quite frequently since I was first called into 
her case, and regard her as a lady of integrity. 

ROBERT ORMISTON, M. D. 



V 



THE I, IKK OF MOLLIE l A.MHK.k. 217 

The Eye. 

From time to time examinations have been made of 
Miss Fancher's eyes, and it has been my purpose to insert, 
in one of the chapters, a more complete statement of their 
appearance and condition at different periods during the 
past twenty-eight years of her confinement to her bed. 
The death of Miss Crosby removed the one who could 
have given the most consecutive statement of this import- 
ant feature of her case. Those who only saw her occa- 
sionally can inform us of what they observed when 
present. Therefore, I shall here set forth what, to me, 
amounts to the most reliable information of the appear- 
ance of her eyes, and of the use she has made of them. 
But first, let us speak of the eye itself as an organ of 
vision. 

This wonderful organ is probably the most sensitive of 
any we possess. A study of its structure and methods, by 
which its office is performed, impresses the student with 
the marvelous cunning of the Creative intelligence, which 
we denominate Deity. Most of the great optical instru- 
ments have been fashioned from studying the structure of 
the eye. 

The cornea is the most prominent part, and is most 
exposed to injury. Any injury to the cornea is likely to 
result in impairing the sight, as through this part of the 
organ light must be transmitted to the inner part, which 
connects with the brain. It is transparent, concavo-con- 
vex in form, and composes the interior fifth of the globe 
of the eye, and is accurately fitted into the sclerotic or 
fibrous coat, forming the posterior portions of the organ. 
The degree of convexity varies, being usually greatest in 
children, and near-sighted persons. Nature has carefully 
provided moisture for the eye from the surrounding parts, 
that the outer surface may be constantly washed or 



2lS THE LIFE OF MOLLTE FANCHER. 

moistened by the action of the delicate inner surface of 
the eyelid. The eyebrows and eyelashes serve as pro- 
tectors to the organ itself, which is sensitive to very 
minute particles of dust. Back of the cornea is a circular 
vertical membranous curtain, designated the iris, pierced 
in the middle by the pupil. This curtain hangs in the 
aqueous humor, separating it into the anterior and pos- 
terior chambers of the eye. The iris is variously colored 
in different individuals. It is provided with delicate fibers 
for dilating and contracting the surface of the opening 
constituting the pupil. The cornea is filled with aqueous 
humor. The crystalline lens is back of the iris, and back 
of this the vitrious humor, and back of this is the retina, 
which is connected with and seems to be a part of the 
optic nerve, which connects with the brain, with which all 
the nerves are ultimately related. Many have supposed 
that in some part of the brain there is a point denominated 
the sensorium, where sensation becomes manifest : the so- 
called " seat of the soul." That there may be such a 
point seems quite reasonable ; that the exact place has 
ever been determined is very uncertain. The muscles of 
the eyeball, to a limited extent, control its action, and 
cause it to be moved in any direction. There are minute 
arteries and veins coursing through various parts of the 
eye, which feed and sustain it. 

For at least nine years from my first acquaintance with 
Miss Fancher, with the exception of the occasion when 
one of her strange personalities was conscious, I had 
never seen Miss Fancher's eyes, so as to distinguish their 
appearance. If they were not entirely closed, they were 
so nearly so that only a whitish line could be observed at 
the lower part of the eyeball between the eyelids. When 
addressing persons in different parts of the room, the eye- 
balls did not seem to turn under the eyelids as is the case 
with other persons. When I was able to see her eyes 



THE LIFE OK MOLLIE FANCHER, 219 

fail ly, to me they did not present the appearance of the 

eyes of any other person whom I had ever seen. There 
was and is a peculiar appearance about them, which did 
not indicate that they were in a normal condition. There 
is another peculiarity about her, which is worthy of care- 
ful consideration. If a person should present before her 
a sharp knife, and make a movement as if to thrust it in- 
to her eyes, she would not recoil or exhibit the slightest 
consciousness of fear or apprehension of danger. She 
acts precisely as would a person totally blind under like 
circumstances. It will be hard to find any person who is 
not blind, who will not flinch when the attempt is made 
apparent to thrust a sharp instrument into the eye. 

Competent persons from time to time, have made care- 
ful examinations into the condition of her eyes, and have 
become satisfied as the result, that her eyes are sightless. 
The arteries and veins are scarcely perceptible, and indi- 
cate that an insufficient supply of nourishment is afforded 
to the organs of sight to give them strength for ordinary 
use. 

The optic nerve is said to be grayish in appearance, in- 
dicating gray atrophy, which would render it incapable of 
transmitting the sense of sight to the brain itself. She 
can turn her eyes upward only a little, and then with great 
effort. But it is common, when she goes into the rigid 
trance, for the globes of her eyes to be turned very much 
upwards, so that only small parts of the cornea are visible. 
At such times, the range of vision of the two organs is 
not the same, but divergent. She evidently has better 
action of the muscles controlling the eyes than she did a 
few years ago. 

I recently questioned her as to what had produced the 
change in the condition of her eyelids, they being open a 
considerable portion of the time. She replied that she 
was inclined to attribute it to the coming of the several 



226 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

other Mollie Fanchers who have been previously described, 
and who also come with open eyes. 

This has been going on for quite a number of years 
now, and it is very evident that with the appearance of 
each of these peculiar individuals, some of the dormant 
nerve forces are awakened and brought into action, and 
cause the opening of the eyelids. This frequent action 
has tended to bring them more into a normal condition, 
so that the individuality that we ordinarily see, called 
"Sunshine," or Mollie No. i, is regaining to a consider- 
able degree, the use of the eyelids and muscles connected 
with the eye. Whether this will result eventually in a 
restoration of the sight of Miss Fancher to a normal 
condition, is exceedingly problematical. 

Disclaiming any more than a cursory knowledge of the 
structure and disease of the eye, it would not be appro- 
priate for me to conjecture upon the subject. 

I notice that some statements have been made, which 
are herein contained, indicating that for very long periods 
of time, Miss Fancher's eyes were continuously open. 
Careful inquiry enables me to say, that when the word 
"continuously" is used in that connection, it is not to be 
understood that in the changes produced by her trances 
and spasms, that at no time were the eyes closed ; but 
that they remained open for a very long period of time ; 
and that a finger could be inserted, and in fact was in- 
serted under the eyelid, and rubbed against the ball of 
the eye, and would have produced instant pain and in- 
flammation, had her eyes been in a normal condition and 
sensitive to touch. Even now she can do strange things 
with her eyes, which indicate to a great degree, absence 
of sensation. 

The fact that a strong light in her room is painful to 
her, and is seldom permitted, indicates that the optic 
nerve is not wholly devoid of sensation; but the other 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 221 

fact, that a strong light may be focalized upon this nerve 
without producing any evidence of pain, in some degree 
rebuts the presumption that it retains any life whatever. 
I have known a deaf mute from childhood, to be thrown 
into spasms of agony from the firing of a cannon close to 
his head. So also, may it not be possible for Miss Fancher 
to be distressed by a strong light thrown upon her head and 
face for a long time, and not be affected by concentrated 
rays directed into one of her eyes, for a short time ? 
Light, color and sound are found to be wonderfully re- 
lated. In her most sensitive conditions Miss Fancher has 
been found able to distinguish colors, even to the most 
delicate shades, when absolutely concealed, not only from 
her normal sight, but while in the pocket of another, and 
when the experimenter did not know the color of the 
article to be described. Then, at times, by the mere 
touch of her fingers to a garment or other article, with her 
face turned from it, she could correctly describe the 
color. At other times she has failed to be absolutely 
correct, all depending upon her physical and mental con- 
dition at the time. Those who have made psychology a 
study by experimenting with sensitive and clairvoyant 
persons, will understand why good manifestations of 
abnormal powers cannot always be shown. Such sensi- 
tives, when urged to give some manifestation of abnormal 
powers, become nervous, and as a rule will fail. Confuse 
a nervous child and it cannot recite a lesson which it has 
learned. Persons seeking for knowledge of such mattei3, 
should have these considerations in mind, and be gentle, 
and not themselves too anxious. As an illustration of 
this important consideration, reference is made to the 
unexpected visit of a number of medical men with Dr. S. 
Fleet Speir to Miss Fancher's chamber, when she was 
required to display before them some of her marvelous 
powers, At first, she says everything seemed dark, and 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



the doctors were more incredulous than ever ; but her 
clairvoyant sight soon came again, sufficiently strong to 
enable her to discomfit the foremost of her doubters by 
informing him that he had something in his pocketbook 
improper for him to carry. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 223 



CHAPTER XXII. 

An interesting feature of Miss Fancher's case, which 
needs more special mention, is her power of discerning 
colors by the sense of touch. Of course when we have 
established the fact that she possesses clairvoyant sight, 
we are left largely to the truthfulness of her own state- 
ments as to the possession of the powers of distinguish- 
ing colors by the sense of touch, for the reason, when it is 
shown, that she can see so as to describe what is beyond 
the range of ordinary vision, it follows that she may be 
able to see colors, and describe them in the same manner. 
But those who know her best, do not question her power 
to sense colors by the passing of her fingers over them. 
She describes them as conveying different sensations to 
her. Some are much more pleasing than others. She 
has her favorites and interblends different ones in her 
work most exquisitely. 

When the day is gloomy, she is depressed, and her 
clairvoyant sight is imperfect. She is at times largely 
guided by the sense of touch, in selecting the colors for 
her work. She is very industrious, and were it not that she 
can concentrate her thoughts upon some object aside from 
herself, she would clearly go mad from the contemplation 
of her own misfortunes and misery. 

Miss Fancher exercises some of the gifts of nature 
more keenly than ordinary persons do. She has a large 
and well balanced brain. She has excellent business 
capacities ; and is naturally very ingenious. 

During the nine years of which we have so frequently 
spoken, with her right arm carried upward and back under 
her head, and her hands, with the exception of the thumbs 
and index fingers, being firmly closed, she did a vast 



224 THE LIFE 0F MOLLIE FANCHER. 

amount of very delicate work. Of course to do her em- 
broidery and work in colors, it was necessary that she 
should make use of both her hands, so that kind of work 
was performed above her head, and beyond the range of 
her natural vision. And yet, it was done with as much 
precision and nicety, as if she had the ordinary use of her 
eyes, and was observing by their use every stitch as the 
work progressed. That she did see, could and can see 
from the top of her head and from her forehead, cannot 
permit of a reasonable doubt. She reads letters placed 
upon her forehead, and has done so hundreds of times. 
In doing her work in wax, she was provided by a professor 
of Harvard College with a peculiar knife, with a rounded 
blade for cutting the leaves for the flowers. The handle 
was so constructed that it could be slipped into her closed 
left hand, and there held while she guided it over the 
sheets of wax, cutting it in the desired forms, upon a 
board placed upon her bed. These flowers were delicately 
tinted by her own hand, with appropriate colors, and 
many specimens of the work which she did during that 
long period, are now in the possession of, and are much 
prized by numerous friends. 

She has within the past few years become interested 
in the work of the George F. Sargent Company, of New 
York, which is engaged in the manufacture and sale of 
numerous articles for the comfort and convenience of 
invalids. It is hard to conceive of anything that an 
invalid may require, from little wagons, chairs on wheels 
and reclining chairs, to adjustable tables, beds, and 
numerous devices, to make the existence of invalids as 
comfortable as possible, which this company does not 
manufacture. As might well be supposed Miss Fancher 
has taken a great interest in the success of the company. 
She holds a few shares of its stock, and has been Secretary 
for a long time, and with her own hand addresses annually 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. - 225 

thousands of circulars, advertising the wares of the com- 
pany all over the world. 

She sells the articles which she embroiders or crochets 
to those who call upon her, and desire some memento of 
their visits. She is naturally proud in spirit, and desires 
to give something in return of a substantial value to those 
who may patronize her. 

We will in the following chapter give expression to a 
few thoughts touching upon the range of her clairvoyant 
powers. , 

It must not be inferred from what has been said, 
regarding Miss Fancher's clairvoyant powers, that it is 
claimed that this gift is exceedingly uncommon. In all 
ages, of which we have any authentic history, mention is 
made of persons possessing or claiming to possess this 
power. Paul possessed it, and in the first chapter of John, 
from the forty-third to the closing verse of the chapter, is 
an interesting account of the conversion of Nathanael, 
who was being brought by Philip to Christ, as being the 
Messias. " Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith 
of him, behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. 
Nathanael saith unto Him, whence knowest thou me ? 
Jesus answered and said unto him, before that Philip 
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 
Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou art 
the Son of God ; Thou art the King of Israel." 

Miss Fancher has many times read the contents of 
sealed letters, and when the fact is established that she 
cannot see by the use of her eyes, if she can read at all, 
and discern things so as to describe them correctly around 
her, it necessarily follows that it must be by the clairvoy- 
ant power, or some other equally mysterious gift. Upon 
one occasion I visited her in company with my wife. We 
entered the front room, and the doors leading to her 
chamber were closed. The room was cold, and Mrs. 



226 THE L1FF OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Dailey shivered as she entered. A few moments afterwards 
the doors opened and we entered Miss Fancher's apart- 
ment. She at once remarked, " Mrs. Dailey, are you cold ? 
I saw that you shivered when you came in." There is no 
way that she could have seen it, without being able to 
penetrate, or see beyond the walls of the room. She has 
sent me to get something which was beyond her reach, in 
her room, and which was entirely hidden from the iine of 
her vision by intervening objects, and when I did not find 
it readily, she minutely described its position so that I 
could find it. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 227 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



"Without the Clap-Trap of Clairvoyance." 

To persons who have for years been interested in the 
study of psychic phenomena, and understand that the 
term "second sight," as used in the case of Miss Fancher, 
is synonymous with "clairvoyance," such expressions as 
are found in the headings of some of the newspaper ar- 
ticles, which are in whole or in part here reproduced as 
historical matters, are amusing. The term " second 
sight " has often been used in referring to the fact that 
old people, whose sight has become impaired, do some- 
times regain at very advanced ages, their vision, so as to 
be able to dispense with the use of glasses, which they 
have been accustomed to wear, and thus to see again as 
distinctly as in youth. Such cases are not at all uncommon, 
and the regained power is commonly called " second 
sight." But these people only see as do others, in their 
normal condition, the material and substantial objects by 
which they are surrounded. They do not perceive those 
things which are intangible to the senses of ordinary mor- 
tals ; they do not see as did the prophet Elisha, when 
compassed about by horses and chariots and a great host, 
which had come to capture him, the mountains full of 
horses and chariots of fire, which were round him to pro- 
tect him (II Kings, chap, vi, verses 14-17). The power 
or gift of sight which the prophet exercised, was not 
possessed by his servant, until his eyes were also opened 
to the entrance of spiritual sight ; and then he beheld for 
himself, and saw what was to others invisible — forces able 
to smite and overthrow the enemies of the prophet. This 
is the true second sight, which such cases as this of Miss 



225 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Fancher tend to prove will be sometime possessed by 
all, as the natural result of the change produced by death 
from which we shall be raised, as described by Paul, with 
a spiritual body, and we shall with our spiritual sight, be- 
hold the glories and wonders of the spiritual world, of 
which Paul himself had through the exercise of this clair- 
voyant power obtained knowledge (15 th chapter, I Cor- 
inthians). In the 1 2th chapter of I Corinthians Paul 
says : " Now there are diversities of gifts but the same 
Spirit, and there are differences of administrations but 
the same Lord ; and there are diversities of operations ; 
but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the 
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
withal; for to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wis- 
dom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same 
Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ; to another 
prophecy ; to another ; the discerning of spirits; to another 
divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of 
tongues ; bat all these worketh, that one and the self- 
same Spirit, dividing to every man as he will!' 

In view of the power of second sight, so unmistakably 
possessed by Miss Fancher, her statements that she dis- 
cerns spirits, should not be considered in the least as 
preposterous by those persons who give to Paul their 
confidence. He was the leading apostle and most con- 
spicuous writer of that age, when the foundations of tne 
Christian church were being laid, and he nowhere claims 
that he spoke for that age alone. He certainly was 
speaking to the church at Corinth as a body, and urging 
the members of that church to seek most earnestly for 
the highest spiritual gifts, and not in a boasting spirit did 
he say: "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more 
than ye all." I Corinthians, chap, xiv, v. 18. 

Thus, that which writers have glibly termed the 
"Clap-trap of Clairvoyance," has, with other gifts which 



THE LTFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 229 

Miss Fancher has at times possessed and exercised, the 
highest authority of the Christian Church, and should no 
more be despised or condemned than the exercise of any 
othe. gift of God to man. People possess, what we term 
natural gifts, in unequal degrees. The souls of some 
persons are strangely affected by the sounds of music- 
Some are wonderfully gifted in the fine arts, and their 
works have been the admiration of the lovers of art in all 
following time. 

It is a very common occurrence for people to advance 
as an argument against the possession of clairvoyant or 
clairaudient powers by others, that they possess no such 
gift themselves, and seem to consider that as conclusive 
proof that it exists in none. It might as well be ad- 
vanced by a person, that no such thing as tune exists in 
music, because he has no ear and cannot distinguish one 
air from another. 

Poor blind Tom ! Sightless, uneducated, a black son 
of Ethiopian parentage — who could have suspected that he 
would have become a prodigy in the musical world ? The 
vibrations of sound left deep impressions in his very soul. 
He caught the most intricate compositions as they were 
given expression under the touch of accomplished per- 
formers, and repeated them, to the astonishment of 
thousands. The gift he possessed was abnormally de- 
veloped. Nature, always kind, and striving to repair one 
misfortune, may have striven to compensate this poor 
boy for his loss of sight, by attuning his soul to respond 
to the divine harmonies of sound, until it was full of 
ecstacy, and overflowed, to the astonishment and pleasure 
of others. 

People who have lost their sight become exceedingly 
sensitive to touch as well as to sound. An English 
clergyman was sick with yellow fever in the West Indies. 
He related to me that when very near death, he was lying 
on his cot in a hospital ward, when the walls of the room 



2%b THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

seemed to melt away, and he saw beyond them, and dis- 
cerned what was being done in other wards from which 
he was separated by partitions of wood, and brick and 
mortar. He saw his wife and daughter, who were miles 
distant, in a carriage, coming on their way to visit him. 
These pages could be filled with thousands of similar 
experiences to sustain the statements herein made, as to 
the powers possessed by Miss Fancher. 

On the evening of June 15th, 1893, I visited her ; and 
finding her alone, gathered the following in answer to my 
questions, which I give as nearly in her language as I can 
recall : 

Question. Will you explain more fully all your sensa- 
tions of sight ? 

Answer. Well, as I have said, my vision is not always 
the same ; much depends upon how I am feeling, and the 
weather conditions. Sometimes the whole top of my head 
seems on fire with the influx of light ; my range of vision 
is very great, and my sight astonishingly clear. Then 
again it seems as if I was seeing through a smoked glass, 
and myvision or consciousness of things is dim and in- 
distinct. Sometimes I can see all through the house. 
When my aunt was alive it was the most common thing 
for her to mislay her portmonaie, veil, or gloves, and not 
know where to look for them, and to come for me to find 
them, and I would go rumaging through the house, and 
finally tell her where to go for them. I have the same 
powers now, but not at all times. Were some one to come 
suddenly and ask me to do such a thing, I might not at 
the moment be able, but after a little, when not anxious 
to see, I can see most clearly. 

Question. Do you when not entranced see your friends 
in the other world around ? 

Answer. At times I do. They seem very real to 
me. Let me explain if I can make myself clear how it is. 



THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 231 

I can compare my sense of sight as much to a camera as 
anything. Sometimes a face seems close to mine, and 
then it shuts out the view of surrounding objects the 
same as the objects would close to the camera. Then 
again the central object is further away, and my range of 
vision is greatly enlarged. Do you understand ? 

Question. Now, tell me more particularly about what 
you say and do in your trances ? 

Answer. Well, when I go into my trances, I am usually 
conscious of being in existence, but they are not like 
dreams. They are like indistinct wanderings ; something 
like the dreams I used to have when asleep, before I was 
injured. When I come out of my trances, they at times 
leave quite distinct recollections, or impressions upon 
my mind. Sometimes they are dim, and are slowly re- 
called, and then become very distinct. Now, as a usual 
thing, when I go into a trance, I go out and around, and 
see a great deal. Sometimes I go into a house and view 
the condition of the rooms, and do not see any one in the 
rooms. Sometimes I see persons and nothing more. I 
very seldom speak of where I have been, and who I have 
seen. At the time that Mr. Sargent was incorporating 
this company, I am connected with, he was at Muskegon, 
Michigan. I went into a trance and was gone for hours. 
My friend, Bert Blossom was present in the room ; when 
I came out of the trance, he was greatly alarmed, think- 
ing I was dead. I told him I had been away to where 
Mr. Sargent was, and saw him on a stage, and he was sing- 
ing to an audience of people in a large room. I had seen 
and heard him. Mr. Blossom said that that was most 
unlikely ; but within the next three days I received from 
Mr. Sargent a letter, informing me of the fact that a Mr. 
Chase, at Muskegon, had opened a large piano factory, and 
that they had celebrated the event by a concert, at which 
he had taken a part in singing ; and he also sent me a 



232 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

newspaper giving an account of the affair, and I sub- 
sequently learned from him that I had correctly described 
the event and scene. 

I have upon two occasions blindfolded her, and upon 
each she described objects in the room, and what per- 
sons present were doing, with the same exactness as 
before my having covered her eyes. 

I have repeated very little of conversations had with 
Miss Fancher, concerning her statements to me of her 
having seen spirits. Upon one occasion, I said to her 
" People speak of your thinking you see spirits." She re- 
plied, "Well, I see spirits if I see anything. I know what 
I see as well as other people know what they see." 

Quite recently Madame LePlongeon, a personal friend 
of both Miss Fancher and myself, informed me that she 
had just had quite an experience with Miss Fancher. She 
had called on her, and she complained of great nervous- 
ness, occasioned by the presence of the spirit in her room 
of quite a distinguished man — an editor — who had re- 
cently passed to spirit life. She said this spirit came to 
her early in the preceding evening, and had given his 
name, and had endeavored with great persistence to make 
known something, which he wished, evidently, to com- 
municate to his wife. She could not make out his mes- 
sage, and desired him to leave her, which he did not do 
at once, but continued his efforts until the following 
morning, when, like the ghost of Hamlet, he stole away. 
At one time he brought his wife before her, and showed 
Miss Fancher some paper, from which she inferred that 
these were papers he wished his wife to have. His wife 
is still living. 

Miss Fancher had never seen this man or his likeness 
before. 

Madame Le Plongeon then went to the Brooklyn Li- 
brary, and found, after considerable search, a likeness of 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCMER. 2$$ 

this man among a large number of others, which she 
brought, in a large publication and covered the name 
under each, before she presented it to Miss Fancher. 
Miss Fancher rejected several until the correct likeness 
was presented, which she at once recognized, saying, 
" Now, his hair is gray, in the picture it is black." 

The picture was one taken in the gentleman's early 
life, when his hair was dark. At the time of his death it 
was gray. In the presence of Dr. Ormiston and Dr. 
Speir, I asked Miss Fancher about this occurrence, and 
she corroborated the statement of Madame Le Plongeon 
quite fully. 



/ 



234 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



A PEN PICTURE. 

By Miss S. C. Clark. 

During long years of personal invalidism, the writer 
had heard much and thought often with deepest sympathy 
of the remarkable invalid of Brooklyn, from whose couch 
of phenomenal suffering physicians sometimes came to her 
own. How many inquiries were made of them regarding 
her, how sad the stories told, how natural the longing thus 
encouraged to see this beautiful, patient girl. Released 
at last herself from painful bondage to the flesh, and years 
later visiting New York, the old-time desire sprang forth 
once more to see Mollie Fancher, a wish prompted by no 
motives of idle curiosity but from friendship already warm 
and true, from yearnings of sympathy and compassion 
born of that strong kindred tie — the fellowship of suffer- 
ing, even though her own had been of a type not to be 
mentioned in comparison with this modern miracle. 

A friend, whose privilege it had been to make Mollie's 
acquaintance, volunteered the office of conductor to her 
bedside, receiving in response to the query sent her by 
mail, the usual gracious assent vouchsafed to the many 
thousands who year after year have coursed through that 
chamber, which is at once prison-house and shrine. 

Arrivingat the little three story house, set squarely upon 
the pavement at the corner of two quiet Brooklyn streets, 
a pause was first made in the fancy goods store; on the 
street floor, where so many and such varied specimens of 
the sick girl's beautiful handiwork were displayed on sale. 
Paintings on silk, velvet and other textures, embroideries 



THE LIFE OF MOIl.lR FANCHER. 235 

of rarest excellence, whose flowers bore the touch of 
inspiration upon them, even the fragrance breathed forth 
from the artist's pure soul ; there were divers articles of 
worsted work, and souvenirs of every choice and quaint 
design. It was a most pathetic display* as if the heart's 
blood of the patient sufferer had been crystallized into 
many colored gems, a kaleidoscope of genius born of pain 
— that crucible of power. 

The lady in attendance, lifting the mouth-piece of a 
speaking tube, signalled to the quick ear chained to its 
pillow in the room above the arrival of expected guests, 
and the order was immediately given that they be allowed 
to ascend to the parlor on the second floor, from which 
wide folding doors led to Mollie's room — that chamber 
with its tragedy of twenty-eight years' conflict, under the 
burden of a life which has come to its possessor as a 
crown of thorns, the scene of many vain yearnings for the 
Angel of Death, so pitifully reluctant to approach with 
his oft-time coveted release. 

Who could enter this place but with reverence, or fail 
to step lightly as if upon holy ground? The pale after- 
noon's rays of a winter's sun fell with caressing touch 
across the farther corner of the room, whose light was 
dimmed by the draperies that partially concealed the 
pane. Against an opposite wall arose the back of a high 
pointed bedstead, across which were arranged large linen 
pillow-shams, as if the couch were unoccupied, while low 
in front of these a snowy bolster lay across the bed, and 
upon this, at one side, a tiny, thin pillow held the dear, 
curly head, from which flashed a smile of welcome, light- 
ing up the whole face with radiance, despite the closed 
lids and sightless orbs. The hands were extended with 
warmest friendly grasp, and seats were assigned near by, 
the courtesy not neglected of request to lay aside bundle, 
hat and cane, an attention which a hostess less blind 



236 THE LIFE OF MOLLlE FANCHEK. 

might easily omit, for it is always the warm heart that 
forms the mainspring of true politeness and not the 
acquired finesse of social mandates. 

And what was the vision that then enthralled the gaze ? 
What did this girl look like who for years had been torn 
by spasms, convulsions and agonies inconceivable ? 
Where was the trace of this supreme anguish ? Was the 
face contorted and misshapen, the flesh shriveled and 
wrinkled as one might readily suppose ? Ah, no ! The 
face might easily have represented that of a maiden still in 
the bloom and freshness of youth with the texture and hue 
of health. Round and full and pink and white, every line 
and contour of face or feature expressing a sweet serenity 
of disposition which could easily ripple into mirth. No 
trace was there of most excusable impatience, no wrinkled 
record of frown or scowl. A small pretty mouth accus- 
tomed to smile, and above the closed blue eyes and the 
placid white brow arose a crown of auburn hair, glinted 
with sunlight caught from some other realm than this, 
whose solar radiance she has not seen for so many weary 
years. The hair is short and parted on the side nearest 
the pillow where from its constant friction it is much 
worn, but the tightly curling rings are tossed jauntily up^ 
ward on the top of the head as fitting aureole to the 
gentle", sunny face. 

A dainty dressing sack of delicate pink, embroidered 
by her own needle, left the plump white throat exposed, 
and the loose sleeves fell back from a perfectly moulded 
arm and beautiful hand at whose juncture tiny circlets of 
gold almost cut into the dimpled wrists. As she lies in 
bed, she looks hardly the length of a child, as from her 
knees her limbs are turned sharply back, and, when in 
merry vein with her attendant, she sometimes revolves 
them in their sockets as if turning the handle of a street 
organ. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 237 

Yet pathos enough fills her heart as she engages in 
conversation, discussing freely her peculiar and pitiful 
history, and tears flow in spite of her efforts at self-con- 
trol when she speaks of the dear aunt who for twenty-six 
years laid by her side at night, and watched her hourly 
with tenderest care. When asked if with her wonderfully 
clear vision she cannot still enjoy her dear companion- 
ship and see also other dear ones who have been so 
strangely taken from her; " O, yes," she said, " I see 
them constantly, but I want them here. I long for the 
sound of their voices and to feel the dear touch of their 
hands." 

Ordinary words of comfort and cheer fall powerless 
here in the presence of this overwhelming burden of suf- 
fering increased by loneliness, poverty, and the loss of 
almost every earthly tie. The situation is one that the 
strongest heart could not behold unmoved, it is a test of 
endurance under which the best balanced mind might 
falter and weaken. Yet clear is every mental faculty, un- 
impaired and fine the intellect, the affections warm and 
spontaneous in their expression. The narrowness of the 
habitual invalid, shut in perforce between four chamber 
walls, finds here no place; her interests are wide and 
varied. The patience with which she has endured these 
long, pitiless years is superhuman, and has its fount deep 
within a soul that must be known to be appreciated. 

It is said that no man is ever a hero to his own valet, 
and yet an attendant who has watched over Mollie in the 
dreary, agonizing night struggles, when for many an hour 
the heart has stopped its beating, and who has seen her 
in every painful experience, exclaimed to the visitors as 
they took their departure that wintry day, " O, yes, she is 
beautiful, but then you can't begin to know her in a brief 
call. You have to see her day after day and month after 
month to realize quite how sweet and lovely she is." 



23S THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

Strange and awful mystery of a life that has no paral- 
lel. Who can unfold its wonderful secret, its cause and 
purpose ? If, as is claimed, astrology holds the key to 
human destiny, why among the myriad births which must 
have occurred on the planet at the hour of Mollie's ad- 
vent, has no repetition been found of this life of torture 
and slow release ? Beneficent stars are found in every 
other horoscope. The explanation has been offered that 
no babe born at the hour of Mollie's nativity could have 
survived its sixth year. She also should have gone there. 
Her mother departed instead, and consequently being no 
longer properly related to the planet, this girl is unlike 
anything upon it, and therefore not amenable to the usual 
measures of relief effectual with other sufferers. 

Again, the not irreverent but awesome question arises, 
what is the divine purpose in this strangely blighted ex- 
istence? There is sl divinity that shapes our ends. Chance 
is not supreme ruler. Then why this prolonged suffering 
when purification seems already out-wrought ? Are there 
deeper lessons in spiritual truth yet to be learned ? 

Was there a prior life-record of which this strange and 
terrible experience is the sequel ? In what other way than 
by the acceptance of the fact of a re-embodiment can 
the reputation of Deity be saved from reproach ? A hu- 
man monster of injustice and cruelty would not inflict 
this prolonged torture or behold such resignatiom un- 
moved. Has the hazardous gift of free agency brought 
sometime to this soul mistakes which can only be over- 
come and outgrown by a mighty atonement ? 

Problems all to the human mind which often forgets 
that " while wisdom and sight are well, still trust is best ; " 
a trust so unflinching that it never falters, but grows 
brighter under every test, exclaiming with the psalmist, 
" Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 

The present hour is hard to bear and difficult to com- 
prehend; but of dear Mollie's future, when freed from the 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 239 

body of this death, there can be no doubt. Her truest 
friends can anticipate in her joyful release, the weight of 
glory which will be hers when every pain shall be trans- 
formed to a radiance with which few newly emancipated 
spirits can be clothed, even the "white robes" only worn 
after "great tribulation," and every tear this crucial dis- 
cipline has cost will but add brighter jewels to her fade- 
less crown. 



240 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Mollie Fancher, the Woman. 

To such as enjoy the privilege of intimate acquaint- 
ance with Mollie Fancher, it is probable that the idea of 
phenomena connected with her life, rarely occurs to them; 
unless indeed, it be the fact that a life schooled to such 
suffering can exemplify so perfectly the analogy of the 
gold of the refiner's fire. We therefore beg permission 
to drop the curtain for awhile, on the more dramatic 
scenes and incidents of her phenomenal existence, while 
we attempt to give a few glimpses of Mollie Fancher, the 
woman. 

On the same side of the same bed, the earnest, patient 
face has peered out from beneath the snowy coverlid, and 
the aching head has pillowed itself on the same resting- 
place, through all the weary years of suffering. And yet 
the pittiless blade of pain has plowed no furrows in her 
placid brow ; no silver threads among the silken curls 
bear evidence of King Time's march ; and the tiny, 
shapely hands, with their pink, taper fingers, are no tell- 
tales of the prodigious product of their cunning. 

Her bed is placed with the pillow to the east. At her 
right is a low piece of furniture — half stool and half 
chair — with back and side-arm ; underneath the (lifting) 
seat of which is an ample compartment. This serves as a 
seat for her friends as well as a receptacle for such articles 
as she may wish close at hand. 

To the right of the bed, placed against the wall, is a 
dainty device of her own invention, answering the double 
purpose of burean and cabinet. It has curtained shelves 
below in lieu of drawers, the canopied top forming a 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 241 

recess above filled with bric-a-brac, etc. All of this is 
artistically arranged and tastefully draped. These 
articles of furniture, to the casual observer, would seem 
to be merely the caprices of architectural design ; but 
from the quantity and variety of articles she is able to 
produce from them, one would almost imagine that there 
was a warehouse just beyond. 

There is a marked personality about all her belongings, 
as about every thing she does. Order is a part of her 
nature. What she needs and uses most frequently is 
always within reach of her hand. She directs the dispo- 
sition of every article of the house, w T hether above or 
below stairs, and never forgets where such and such a 
thing is ; even to the interior of a bureau drawer, or a 
closet, from garret to cellar. 

Her own apartments have that peculiar unstudied air 
of restfulness which causes the visitor to wonder at the 
effect produced ; and yet, if we attempt to individualize 
any single art'cle in the rooms, nothing could be found 
that might be considered especially elegant or luxurious. 
The furniture is practical and comfortable. Pictures, 
dear to her more from association than from artistic 
elegance, embellish the walls. Here and there are unique 
pieces of bric-a-brac, a screen, or odd pieces which have 
been presented her. A sweet little window-garden, and 
an aquarium, fill the south window. One or two birds 
within their cages, are singing, or hopping from perch to 
perch, and usually there are to be found flowers and 
fruits, that at the same time exhale sweet odors, and 
charm the senses. 

Miss Fancher is decidedly unlike any other invalid. If 
the reader has a preconceived idea of her as one of the 
sanctimonious sort, with long-sleeved, starched night- 
gown, and ruffled collar and wristbands, lying, with hands 
folded, apparently waiting and listening for the dip of the 
ferryman's oar, we must disabuse him or her of that fancy. 

x6 



242 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

To look at her, you forget the invalid. She has a 
noble face, but withal one that is exquisitely sensitive in 
expression to the emotions that sway the heart. Her 
head is finely shaped ; with hair conveniently short, parted 
jauntily upon the right side, and, as Tennyson expresses 
it, "running over with curls." Around her shapely throat, 
she wears, as she has done for years, a string of silver 
beads ; and a few 'simple rings ornament her fingers. 

Without vanity, she is a lover of the beautiful, and has 
an eye for the artistic, hence, her personal appearance is 
always attractive. The sacks that she usually wears, are 
of dainty tints, and tastily embroidered ; and are of her 
own design and handiwork. 

The side of the bed upon which she lies, is a separate 
section, occupying but half its space, and has an adjust- 
able head or back, which enables her to rest in a position 
slightly reclining. When at work, at her feet, within easy 
reach, is a willow basket, containing the implements of 
her industry, writing materials, etc.; while the other side 
of the bed serves as a table for unfinished work. 

Mollie Fancher is every inch a woman. A healthier 
mind never made its dwelling-place within a mortal body; 
and though physical suffering is an ever-present attendant, 
and while she is ready at any and all times to follow the 
beckoning finger of "Death's bright angel," all of that 
gives her no concern. The unfaltering faith that has held 
her through sufferings equivalent to an hundred physical 
deaths, still seems as an anchor for the tempest-tossed 
barque, — ready to be cast for permanent mooring, when 
the voyage of life is ended. 

She is keenly sensible to the responsibilities of living, 
and ever ready to follow in the procession, bearing her 
share of life's burdens in common with her fellow-trav- 
elers, in the belief that the more thoroughly life's lessons 
are learned, the larger the measure of joy that will be 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 243 

meted out in the nobler and more extensive sphere of use- 
ful activity in the existence beyond. 

We have described her rooms and surroundings ; pic- 
ture, then, Mollie Fancher the woman, at work. When it 
became apparent that there was no escape from the fetters 
of infirmity that were to bind her as long as life should last, 
she set at work to adjust to her shoulders the yoke upon 
which the burdens were to be placed, without a murmur. 

The active, intelligent brain took the lead ; it con- 
ceived things of beauty susceptible of execution in needle- 
work, flowers of wax, etc.; and the willing fingers obeyed 
the mandates of the mind. No obstacle was so great, but 
the way was found to overcome it. Her nine long years 
with one arm drawn to the back of the neck, and the 
other hand with the four fingers clenched to the palm, the 
thumb alone being free for active use, were still years of 
industry ; and with sightless eyes, through all available 
conscious hours, day and night alike, until the mental 
images were transferred into fabric, startling in original- 
ity, vivid in color, and reproducing Nature to an extent 
hitherto unequaled. 

The world will never know how much of pain there 
was interwoven with these stitches, nor what became of 
the proceeds of that labor. She had a way, 'tis said, of 
not letting " the right hand know what the left hand 
doeth," and the nine years referred to are a blank in the 
memory of the Mollie Fancher of to-day ; but in a variety 
of ways, it has leaked out, that at about this time, there 
were hungry mouths fed and shivering children clothed, 
that never knew who was their benefactress. Although 
the flowers of wax that were fashioned by those crippled 
hands, exhaled no odor, we feel that, inasmuch as the 
Mollie Fancher of that period is dead, it is appropriate 
to her memory, to render, in behalf of the forgotten 
beneficiary, this tardy tribute ; that from the spirit that 



244 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

inspired the making of these flowers of wax, was emitted a 
prefume as fragrant as the sweetest incense ever in cen- 
ser, before sacrificial altar. 

Ample and well-authenticated statements are else- 
where in this volume made, pertaining to that period of 
nine years, around which, like a parenthesis, have been 
drawn the marks which separate it from her life before 
and after. 

Occurrences of that time, are still referred to, both by 
herself and her friends, as contemporaneous with the life 
of "The Other Mollie." That individuality did, actually, 
die, so far as any subsequent developments up to the 
present time have indicated. There has been no reap- 
pearance of that identical personality. The physical life, 
however, was continued, and Life's burdens had to be 
taken up at the point from which they were dropped, nine 
years before. With this digression from the thread of our 
subject, we will take up the broken chain of her life, at 
the threshold of her (so-to-speak) renewed existence. 

If the " Other Mollie " has ceased to exist as a person- 
ality, she surely bequeathed the spirit that animated her 
limited life, to the Mollie that succeeded her. And al- 
though it was bewildering to her, at first, to follow the 
trend of her thought and action, yet by degrees the situa- 
tion was mastered. Methods of work that were devised by 
the "Other'Mollie," were studied by the "New Mollie." 

Work that was left unfinished by the former, was com- 
pleted by the latter, according to lines laid out ; and thus, 
in more senses than one, were the broken threads of life 
spliced so deftly, that the knot uniting them was scarcely 
discernible. The acquaintances that were formed by the 
one, were re-introduced, and became the friends of the 
other ; and by the aid of papers, memoranda and letters, 
left by the " Other Mollie," together with the information 
derived from friends, the old life gradually so far merged 



tut: life of mollie fancher. 245 

into the new, that the latter became reconciled to carry 
on, unflinchingly, the effort of her suffering existence — at 
the same time doing with all her might what her hands 
found to do. 

So much has been written concerning Miss Fancher's 
ability and capacity for work, that our readers may have 
been led to wonder if work of such character as has been 
described, fills up the measure of her life. We assure 
them that such indeed is not the case. 

A mind and temperament such as she possesses, could 
not be content with anything short of the full develop- 
ment of its every faculty. 

Miss Fancher's peculiar condition has in many respects 
been favorable, and exceptionally so, to the acquirement 
of a large fund of general information, by which she has 
striven to profit, and which she has utilized to the best ad- 
vantage. Physical misfortune, therefore, in her case, as in 
others, is not without its advantages, and its compensations. 

Owing to a wonderfully retentive memory, her mind 
is a storehouse of practical knowledge ; it might be com- 
pared to a cabinet of shelves, filled with manuscripts, 
filed away and labeled, but always ready for production 
and application as occasion requires. Those who know 
her best, wonder most at her stable, yet kaleidoscopic 
character. Stable, in that you always find her the same 
sturdy, thrifty woman, and kaleidoscopic, in that, no mat- 
ter how often you meet her, there is always something 
new to be seen. Her vistors'-book displays a record of 
so many, that it would appall most any ordinary woman 
to think of entertaining them. Since the beginning of her 
illness, a careful estimate places the total number of her 
calls, at between seventy-five and one hundred thousand ; 
and yet, out of this vast number of different persons who 
have made up the grand aggregate, (with the exception of 
those who called during that nine years which is a blank 



246 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

in her memory,) there is probably not a forgotten face or 
name. And it is doubtful if there is any woman living 
that has made as many friends as has Miss Fancher, dur- 
ing the period of her sickness. Numbered among them, 
are many of both sexes distinguished in the various arts, 
sciences, and learned professions ; as well as in the finan- 
cial, commerical and social world. 

With the advantages of such personal intercourse, her 
naturally receptive mind has been developed by the im- 
bibing of information and ideas resulting from such con- 
tact, to an extent which falls to the lot of very few. She 
has also, by the courtesy of the Brooklyn Library, had 
access to its many volumes ; which privilege she has by 
no means neglected. Added to this, she has been a con- 
stant reader of the daily newspapers, thereby keeping pace 
with the current events of the time. It will thus be seen, 
that many circumstances, of vastly diverse kinds, have 
combined to make up a well-rounded character. 

Miss Fancher is a brilliant and versatile conversation- 
alist ; and, although having decided opinions of her own, 
she is not inclined to obtrude them. But when occasion 
demands, she is thoroughly capable of enforcing them 
with a logic that is not easy to combat. She is sparkling 
in humor, and caustic in repartee ; quick to see the ludi- 
crous side of anything ; enjoys a good story, and both the 
making and the taking of a good joke. Many instances 
might be related illustrating her ready wit ; but it is the 
lightning-flashes, coupled with her gestures and facial ex- 
pression, that most charm the auditor ; and these, of 
course, cannot be transmitted to paper. 

On one occasion, a gentleman calling upon her, was, 
as he thought, pressing her into retreat by the force of his 
argument ; but her readier wit discerned his weak point, 
and she so adroitly turned the tables on him, knocking 
out the whole underpinning of his argument, that he was 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 247 

himself vanquished. Throwing up his hands, he ex- 
claimed, " Well ! you ought to have been a man ! " She 
quickly followed up her advantage by retorting, "I just 
wish I were a man for about live minutes ! " and by pan- 
tomimic action, which indicated his personal annihilation, 
he was left to contemplate what indeed might have been 
his fate had such really been the case ! 

On another occasion, a gentleman who prided himself 
on his superior wit, undertook to chaff her, upon her al- 
leged powers of second-sight. He facetiously inquired : 

" When you are away on any of your occult preambu- 
lations, do you ever come across me ? " 

She answered : " Oh, yes ; frequently ! " 

" Well/' he rejoined, " that is very interesting. Do 
you ever see anybody around me ? " 

" Very often," was the demure reply. 

" Ah, indeed ! " continued the gentleman, sagely. 
" And can you give me any idea what they look like ? " 

" Creditors," was the good-natured but crushing reply. 

Among the many phases of her character, there is per- 
haps none more beautiful, than that which is brought out 
by questions which touch the heart. Her sensitive lip will 
always quiver at the recital of a tale of grief or suffering. 
At such times she seems to forget her own crosses and 
trials. Her quick intuitions and keen insight into human 
nature, prompt her to speedy action, whenever she sees 
the way to aid those in trouble. Her special aversion, is 
meanness, in any form. She delights to spread the 
sheltering mantle of charity over any weakness in others, 
but selfishness, she abhors. She is so punctilliously hon- 
est and straightforward herself, that the person who under- 
takes to perpetrate anything of an opposite nature, in any 
transaction with her, does not long remain uninformed as 
to her views of the matter, which she has the faculty of 
making so plain, that if there is a latent sense of honor 



248 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

in the individual, an acknowledgment will be offered, or 
the perpetrator will slink away with the consciousness 
that he or she has been weighed in the balance and been 
found wanting. 

The old adage that 



Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do." 



can not be applied to Mollie Fancher. Her busy brain i 
too much occupied with her own affairs, to be able to give 
unsolicited attention to those of other people. A secret 
confided to her, is as inviolable in her breast, as though it 
were buried in the grave. An idle gossip, especially where 
there is in it a taint of scandal — is to her a thing that is 
loathsome. Her tastes all run to the beautiful, good and 
useful. 

It has always been an ambition of Miss Fancher, to 
be of use in the world ; something, indeed, that should 
enter into a wider sphere of usefulness, than the making 
fancy work or embroidery. Some six or seven years ago, 
an opportunity presented itself in a rather peculiar, 
though perfectly natural way, of which she availed herself. 
A lady friend, who is widely known as a contributor to 
current literature, asked the privilege of bringing to her 
bedside and introducing to her, a gentleman of her 
acquaintance, whom she thought Miss Fancher would like 
to meet, as he was interested in all such cases as hers, he 
having devoted much time and study to the devising of 
appliances for the relief and comfort of invalids. Upon 
his being introduced to her, she said, " Why, you are Mr. 
Sargent, the Invalid's friend ; I have read your adver- 
tisements so often, that surely I am glad to meet you." 
(An account of this interview went the rounds of the 
press, as may be remembered by some of our readers.) 

With subsequent visits, the acquaintance begun at that 
meeting, grew ; and very naturally with it, Miss Fancher's 



: 



1'HE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 249 

interest in the work in which Mr. Sargent was engaged. 
It is unnecessary to follow the details relating to the busi- 
ness ; but this sketch of Miss Fancher's life would be in- 
complete, if allusion were not made to the fact that she 
became identified with the enterprise of which Mr. Sargent 
was the founder. Known at that time as " The Sargent 
Manufacturing Company," but recently reorganized and 
incorporated under the name of " The George F. Sargent 
Company," this enterprise has for its President, Mr. 
Sargent, and for its Vice-President, Miss Fancher, with 
office and warerooms at 814 Broadway, New York. 

It should not be inferred, from Miss Fancher's con- 
nection with commercial matters, that she is the " typical 
business woman " — planning and scheming only for the 
dollar. While any pecuniary benefits that may be derived 
from her work or interests, she does not pretend to de- 
spise, such motives are remote from the real purpose that 
actuates her. • 

Had the nature of the business been of a different 
character, it must doubtless have had no special attraction 
for her. But in the success of an enterprise such as this, 
the chief object of which is, the development of devices 
for the relief of suffering humanity, and the grouping to- 
gether in such an establishment of all such articles as tend 
to the comfort of her fellow-invalids, she became deeply 
interested ; and has, ever since her identification with it, 
been a most important and helpful factor in its fortunes. 

In the affairs of the Company, she finds much con- 
genial occupation ; and though denied the privilege of the 
routine work of the office and store, she acquaints herself 
with their every detail. Each new article handled by the 
Company is brought to her bedside for inspection, that she 
may understand its purpose, and be ready to aid by her 
suggestions, as to faults that are apparent, or improve- 
ments that might be made. Through the extensive cor- 
respondence, a new world is opened, with which she is 



IK 



250 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

brought in touch. The meetings of the Directors are held 
in her room, and she is a potent influence in their coun- 
cils. There is a considerable amount of detail work, to 
which, in her own peculiar way, she finds time to give at- 
tention, which to her is at the same time diverting to the 
mind, and pleasurable in the execution. 

In her school-girl days, Miss Fancher was more than 
ordinarily proficient as a musician. She was the possessor 
of a sweet though not powerful soprano voice ; and as a 
pianist, the most exacting music offered little difficulty in 
its rendition. The study of music was not drudgery ; 
music was soul-food, and entered into every fibre of 
her nature. In later years, notwithstanding the chain of 
untoward circumstances, that had bound her to a bed of 
suffering, music has lost none of its charms ; it has, indeed, 
proved the solace of many weary hours. And so, instead 
of through peevish murmurings, her pent-up sufferings 
havv many a time found a relief in an outburst of tuneful 
song. 

With the Goddess of Music thus enshrined in the heart, 
the soul can sing, and the lips can smile. It is an inherit- 
ance on earth, that bankruptcy cannot touch. It is the 
ladder by which pilgrims Jirough the darkness climb to 
the regions of celestial light. 

No devotee to the art of music can be indifferent to 
the other twin sister — poetry. They are the the offspring 
of the same divine paternity. Neither can plume its pin- 
ions for flight, without the other's aid. If one knocks for 
admittance at the door of a human heart, its hinges must 
swing back for both. They are God's messengers ; sent 
to attune the heart-strings for rhythmic vibration with the 
harmonies of heaven. 

At Mollie Fancher's heart, their knock was heard, and 
they were both bidden to enter — and have ever remained 
— welcome guests. 






I UK LIKE OK MOLLIS FANCHER. 25I 

Should it be asked in what direction lie her poetical 
tastes, definite answer could hardly be made — only to say, 
it is a part of the air she breathes. For her, there is 
poetry in all of God's handiwork. The flowers exhale it ; 
it shimmers in the sunbeams, sparkles in the snow-flakes, 
sighs in the whispering zephyrs, and weeps in the falling 
rain-drops. While she bows reverently at the shrine of 

" — The grand old masters, 

— The bards sublime, 
Whose distant footsteps echo 

Through the corridors of time ; " 

She dwells more with 

" — The humbler poets 

Whose songs gushed from the heart ; 
Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care, 
And come like the benediction 

That follows after prayer." 

Yes, with Mollie Fancher, it is the heart-songs that are 
her treasures ; something that has in it strains responsive 
to the cadences of her own life. She may gather them 
from the garnered granaries of the greater poets, or catch 
them from the fugitive verse that covers the skies of cur- 
rent literature ; but if there be a ripened berry within the 
pod, it will be extracted, and find a hiding place within 
the caskets of her poetic jewels. 

Are there not lessons to be learned from the life of 
Mollie Fancher ? We have watched her bravely battling 
with the giant adversary, Pain ; have followed her through 
the prosaic routine of her daily life ; and have remarked 
her flight, as on eagles' wings, above life's commonplaces. 
But we have heard no murmur at unkindly Fate ; nor do 
we find record of an idle hour. 



252 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



Her daily answered prayer, which is given in the fol- 
lowing lines in fac-simile of her own hand-writing, has? 
been, 




^w, l)J^w^AM^^^;^ 








Fac-simile of handwriting-, and original poem by Miss Fancher. 





THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 253 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



As a Neighbor. 



The following, from a private letter, is published by 
permission : 

Dear M.: 

You ask if I can tell you any thing about Mollie Fan- 
cher. Certainly ! In Brooklyn, not to know about this 
famous lady, is to prove one's self unknowing, whether 
unknown of not. Mrs. Carleton and myself often visit 
her. 

It seemed very interesting to learn that she was a 
neighbor of mine ; I was not long in sharing the knowl- 
edge with her, of which I was not so sure whether it would 
interest her equally ; for she has the luxury of her own 
likes and dislikes. But a ten minutes' walk brought us 
together ; and I may say truly that we became great 
friends at once, and have been so for some years. 

I confess that, like others, I first sought her from the 
motive of curiosity. But that all vanished in a moment, 
before the attractions of her womanly nature, and the 
genuine warmth of her deep heart. Here was not a curio 
— or a mystery — or even an invalid, so far as the mind 
was concerned ; but a large-brained, pure-souled woman ; 
physically prone — always prone, God help her ! — upon her 
bed ; but mentally and spiritually standing erect in the 
fullest dignity of her sex, and bidding defiance to every 
limitation that could afflict the body ! 

I felt no more liberty to ask her about her peculiar 
occult gifts, than concerning her private business matters; 



254 THE LI FE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

and not being a scientist, a physician, or a theologian, I 
have deferred knowing any thing about them from per- 
sonal information, until she happens to be in a mood to 
tell me. Then, with her permission, I will give you my 
views upon the subject. 

But as a neighbor, I am free to say, that Mollie Fancher 
is valuable and charming. A friendly half hour chat with 
her, is a tonic. She knows all the news, and much history; 
she can converse about the great events of the world — 
the only kind of gossip that is not belittling, She shows 
an honor and honesty in every remark, that leads one to 
feel that he can throw off the harness of restraint and 
talk with her as with a friend, and not with a possible 
newspaper reporter, or social item-monger. She is patient 
and amiable, and I have never heard a harsh word from 
her lips, except when talking about something mean and 
unjust. She is sagacious and sparkling in conversation ; 
her remarks are entertaining enough for the most exacting 
salon. She is sound of judgment on business matters ; 
her mind is gifted with the vertebrae of common sense. 
Her perseverance and industry are marvelous, from all 
accounts ; but for these she claims no credit. They help 
her forget the pain that comes and comes, but never goes. 
Her bravery and courage are constantly to the fore, and 
are needed, in all the various afflictions that fall upon her; 
for this woman, who for so many years has prayed for 
death, has wept through the hours of the distant funerals 
of all of her kin. Her manners and speech are more 
refined than those of many who have had the opportunity 
of moving about in the world, with all the advantages 
derived therefrom. Her personal appearance is not that 
of an invalid, but of a lady eclining at ease upon the couch 
of her parlor. Her spirit of love and charity toward the 
rest of her race is very pronounced, and finds expression 
in presents to her friends and deeds of charity to the poor. 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 255 

Stepping into her rooms one day, I saw an old gentle- 
man of between seventy and eighty, taking leave of her. 
As he passed me, with a word of kindly greeting, he 
quietly remarked : " I have been visiting here many years, 
and never went away without feeling that I was a better 
man than when I came." And that describes Mollie 
Fancher, in a word, and explains why so many of us visit 
and value her as a neighbor, and not as a curiosity. 
***** 

WILL CARLETON. 



256 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



Conclusion. 



With this chapter the task I commenced more than 
two years since is completed. I fully realize that it is im- 
perfectly done, and that much of interest might be added 
concerning the life of Miss Fancher. During those two 
years, events have transpired relating to her which should 
be mentioned now. 

Shortly before commencing this book, I was requested 
by that eminent scientist, Doctor Elliot Coues, President 
of the Psychical Congress, held at the Columbian Expo- 
sition World's Fair Auxiliary, in Chicago, August, 1892, 
to carefully investigate, make and report to that body, 
the facts of the case of Miss Fancher. This was done, 
and the report was read to a large and attentive audience. 
It occasioned much comment at the time, through the 
public press of this country, and also in foreign journals. 
Asa result, many persons have sought the opportunity to 
personally visit Miss Fancher, that they might form their 
own opinions regarding the truth of many of the state- 
ments contained in that report. Others have desired a 
committee of scientific gentlemen to be appointed, to make 
a personal and critical examination of the lady, and as to 
her powers, with the expectation that a report signed by 
such a committee, would forever settle in the public mind 
the much mooted question, as to whether such powers 
were ever exercised by any person, and particularly by 
Miss Fancher. To this effect is an article entitled "The 
Case of Mollie Fancher," published in the Medico-Legal 
Journal of New York, June, 1894, edited by Clark Bell, 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 257 

Esq., of New York City. The Section on Psychology of 
the Medico-Legal Society of New York, appointed a com- 
mittee, consisting of eminent medical gentlemen, to ex- 
amine into the case, with whom I was expected to co-op- 
erate. For reasons stated to the Executive Committee of 
the Society, I did not advise Miss Fancher to submit to 
the desired examination. These reasons were published 
in that number of the Journal as follows : 

" I have seen Miss Fancher quite often for the last 
thirteen or fourteen years, and I see, what appear to me, 
great changes in her condition. She is no more the thin, 
spare girl or woman she was when she did so many wonder- 
ful things which have made her life remarkable. She is 
no longer a fasting woman. While unable to masticate 
her food as others do, she partakes of the juices and 
strength of food, and, I think, drinks copiously of water. 
There is a good deal of nourishment in water, people are 
beginning to learn. She is fleshy ; her shoulders are 
broad, her face is quite large, and usually she has very 
dark places under her eyes, extending down on her cheeks, 
as if blood had settled there from a severe blow ; this, 
the physicians say, comes from defective heart action. 
She has the use, so far as I can see, of both hands. She 
turns herself quite readily in bed. Her eyes, much of 
the time are open, and move in the direction of the object 
she is looking for, and I think it is quite apparent, that 
with the return of other powers, she has regained her eye- 
sight to some little degree. Her lower limbs are still 
comparatively useless. Her feet are twisted out of shape 
and the cords under her knees are rigid as steel ; her 
limbs are also exceedingly thin. She gives considerable 
attention to business matters. She is able to do a good 
deal of writing, is easily excited, and as sensitive as a 
person can well be to everything pertaining to her friends 
and herself. She keeps well posted by reading on public 



258 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

affairs, and has opinions of her own upon all matters 
which she is able to express in a forcible manner. Recent 
investigation as to the condition of her sight, shows that 
there is a change in the appearance of her eyes, but when 
medical experts examined them carefully with the opthal- 
moscope, they found the optic nerve presented a very 
strange appearance, and that her eyes were unlike the 
eyes of any person, in other respects, they had ever ex- 
amined. She distinguishes colors by touch ; has her 
trances as she always had them, which serve for her the 
purpose that sleep does in others. She nightly goes 
through the various changes of personality described in 
my report of her case to the Psychical Congress. In my 
opinion, investigation made at the present time as to her 
condition, would not reveal many of the remarkable 
features which have now become historical in her case, and 
are vouched for by the testimony of so many unimpeach- 
able witnesses ; nor is this to be marveled at. She has 
lived far beyond her own, as well as the expectations of 
her friends. She is subject to frequent hemorrhages from 
her lungs, and requires the temperature in her room down 
almost to freezing point, and dimmest possible light. She 
certainly is able to see fine print, and do fine work in a 
light so dim, that it would be impossible for others to do 
the same. She is at times very clairvoyant, at others not 
so much so." * * * 

That, from my knowledge of the great change that 
had taken place in her condition, I did not believe that 
the investigation proposed would be at all satisfactory to 
the medical committee, and I advised against it on that 
ground. 

The editor then proceeds to comment as follows: — 
" It is unfortunate that the friends of Miss Fancher 
take this attitude. Regarding the examination Judge 
Dailey says : ' She distinguishes color by touch ; has her 



THE LIFE OF MOLLIE I'ANCHER. 259 

trances as she always had them, which serve for her the pur- 
pose that sleep does in others. She nightly goes through 
the various changes of personality described in my report 
of her case to the Psychical Congress.' Now that her 
sight is restored and she takes nourishment, a verification 
of the leading features of her present state, and the re- 
markable phenomena of her clairvoyant powers, as stated 
by Judge Dailey, by a committee of physicians, whose 
statements would be accepted by the scientific world, 
would be of the highest value to the acquisition of scien- 
tific truth, and, this now omitted, will lend additional 
doubt, and add to the reserve with which the medical 
profession receive the details of her in every way re- 
markable case. Judge Dailey may still be able to induce 
her friends and advisers to consent to the arrangement of 
some plan, by which the leading facts of her present state 
and condition may be made documentary, by the evidence 
of carefully selected members of the Medico-Legal So- 
ciety, in some manner least objectionable to her, and 
leave no reasonable doubt as to the actual phenomena her 
case presents in the minds of the professional men." 

Should Miss Faacher at this late period of her life, 
when some of the most remarkable features of her case 
have disappeared, and the most startling events of her 
life have become historical, submit to the desired investi- 
gation, what could this committee now investigate, that 
would tend to prove or disprove the most important state- 
ments concerning her ? They certainly could not investi- 
gate the events of the nine years, and the phenomena 
which then occurred. Then, and for that long period, 
her clairvoyant powers were unquestionably continuous. 
It has already been stated, that great physical changes 
have taken place in her condition, and her clairvoyant 
powers are not so great as formerly, and at times they 
are almost wholly gone. There are periods occurring 



260 THE LIFE OF MOLL1E FANCHER. 

with great irregularity, when her clairvoyant sight is in- 
tensely keen, and if the proposed committee was to visit 
her upon one of those occasions, it would unquestionably 
be satisfied of that one fact in her case. But these con- 
ditions are of uncertain duration, and if the gentlemen 
chanced to come, in what she terms one of her " dark 
days," when her senses are greatly blunted, she would 
render herself liable to their adverse criticism, and most 
unjustly so. That such would be the result of any 
investigation now, she and her friends are warranted in 
believing, from the language contained in the article 
referred to. The writer of that article assumes too much, 
when he says, in substance, that the scientific world would 
accept the statements of the committee of physicians, 
even as to her present condition. The statements of these 
learned gentlemen would only be additional testimony to 
what is already before the world, which would be of some 
value, but would be accepted as conclusive by very few. 

The notoriety of her case, as has been already stated, 
is not of Miss Fancher's seeking. All the sensational 
publications concerning her have been against her wishes. 
She has steadfastly protested that she is in all respects a 
private individual, and has reluctantly consented to this 
publication of her case. The facts and testimonials are 
presented herewith, and those who read them can accept 
or reject them at will. I doubt not but that as private 
individuals, the gentlemen composing that committee, 
would be received by Miss Fancher, and in company with 
some of her friends, she may consent that they may sit at 
her bedside most of a night, until the nightly changes of 
personalities occur, should they desire to do so. 

It must not be forgotten that Dr. West is published as 
stating, that Miss Fancher and her friends consented that 
a committee of scientific gentlemen, should make a 
through examination of her and into her case, at a time 



THE LITE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 26t 

when its startling features were constant, which unfortu- 
nately was not done. Dr. West, Prof. Parkhurst, Doctors 
Ormiston and Speir, most of whom have known her in- 
timately for many years, and all of whom have investi- 
gated the facts of her case, and certainly are educated 
and scientific men, have given their testimony which ap- 
pears in this volume ; and if they are not to be credited 
as truthful, the result of a casual investigation made now, 
certainly will not be. For the last twenty years or more 
Dr. Robert Ormiston, has, in his professional capacity, 
been at least a weekly visitor to Miss Fancher. His 
reputation is second to none as a man of integrity, and of 
skill and ability, as a physician. I have no authority to 
refer others to him for further information, as to what he 
knows, concerning the facts of the case of Miss Fancher, 
but have little doubt, that Miss Fancher will consent, that 
he make known much that he withholds from the public, 
which would be of great interest to investigators. As a 
scientist, while modestly disclaiming to be such, those who 
know him most intimately, declare him to be a gentleman 
of eminent attainments, and by no means a novice in psy- 
chological research. My own experience and observa- 
tions in occult and unusual phenomena of a psychological 
character, convince me, that as a rule, every person 
wishes to observe and be satisfied through his own senses, 
and is not willing to take the statements of others as at 
all conclusive in such matters. That Miss Fancher should 
give herself up to the incessant inquisition of investiga- 
tors, is unreasonable in the extreme. 

The editor of the Medico-Legal Journal, when he 
assumes that I have said that Miss Fancher had regained 
her sight, is mistaken. My article reads : " And I think 
it is quite apparent, that with the return of other powers 
she has regained her eyesight to some little degree." I 
do not know that she can see by the use of her eyes at 



262 THE LIFE OF MOLLIE FANCHER. 

all, even now. At times I have been of the impression 
that she could, at others I have been very positive that 
she could not. The recent changes which have taken 
place in her condition, particularly in the movement of 
her eyes and eyelids, indicate returning sight; but I have 
seen the eyes of persons totally blind present a similar 
appearance. I doubt, considering her nervous condition, 
if any remarkable evidence of her clairvoyant powers 
could be obtained, were she to know that she was 
being subjected to tests to prove her clairvoyance. Once, 
knowing I was trying to test her powers, she was unable 
to tell what I had in my closed hand ; but a few moments 
later, when her mind was diverted by conversation, she 
told me correctly that it was something that shone like a 
diamond. It was a diamond. She explained that when 
she knew I was going to test her, everything became dark 
around her, which disappeared after a few moments' con- 
versation upon other matters. 

Within the last few weeks, Miss Fancher's father died, 
and this event, though not unlooked for, has pierced her 
heart with a new sorrow, though she appreciates that he 
is at last relieved from the great suffering which attended 
the closing years of his life. 

In conclusion, I take this occasion to thank those who 
have kindly contributed articles to this work, and regret 
that the timidity of others, has induced them to withhold 
valuable testimony coming under their observation and 
experience. 

I especially desire the public to understand, that be- 
yond the actual cost of its publication, this book, its 
copy-right, and proceeds of sales, are the property of 
Mary J. Fancher. 

Brooklyn, November, 1894. 



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